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Mr. 11 anna in 1903 



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MARCUS ALONZO HANNA 



:V)^ °- 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

NEW YORK ■ BOSTON ■ CHICAGO 
DALLAS • SAN FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 

LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 

TORONTO 



MARCUS ALONZO HANNA 

HIS LIFE AND WORK 



BY 

HERBERT CROLY 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

1912 

All rights reserved 






COPTBIGHT, 1912, 

Bt the macmillan company. 



Set up and electrotyped. Published April, 1913. 



NortoaoO T^xta 

J. 8. Gushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. 

Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



r- n A -^fiMK^Q 



PREFACE 

The preparation of the material upon which the following 
account of Marcus Alonzo H anna's life and work is based was 
attended with many difficulties. No political leader of similar 
prominence in modern times has left such a slim public record of 
his characteristic achievements. He began his career as a politi- 
cal manager whose work consisted, not in the advocacy of legis- 
lative policies or in acts of public administration, but in political 
planning and negotiation, which only incidentally became a matter 
of public record. Throughout his career this aspect of his work 
remained of decisive importance. To give a full and accurate 
account of such plans and negotiations is almost an impossibility, 
and it is impossible, not merely because many of these negotia- 
tions were essentially confidential, but because subsequent ac- 
counts of them, even when given in good faith, can scarcely 
avoid some inaccuracy and partiality. Mr. Hanna's correspond- 
ence also throws comparatively little light upon the critical 
decisions and moments of his career. The really decisive nego- 
tiations were never committed to paper, and Mr. Hanna did not 
keep copies of many of the most important letters which he 
wrote and received. 

In order to supplement the necessary scarcity of documentary 
material bearing on Mr. Hanna's life and work, all of his political 
and business associates were asked to contribute full and careful 
statements covering those phases of his career with which they 
were familiar. The task of taking these statements was confided 
to Mr. James B. Morrow, who had been for many years editor of 
the Cleveland Leader, and who brought to the work unusually 
high qualifications. Not only had he long been personally ac- 
quainted with Mr. Hanna and familiar with the unwritten 
political history of the period, but he had an unusually accurate 
knowledge of the complications and personalities of Ohio politics. 
In taking the statements of Mr. Hanna's friends and associates, 
he was met for the most part with a very cordial desire to coop- 



VI PREFACJj 

erate. There were not more than two or three men who might 
have contributed anything essential to our knowledge of Mr. 
Hanna's life who refused or neglected to add their testimony. 
Besides taking these personal statements, Mr. Morrow also made 
an exhaustive collection of all the available documents and public 
records which would throw light upon any aspect of Mr. Hanna's 
life and work. The material so collected was placed in my 
hands, and has been worked over into a consecutive account of 
Mr. Hanna's career. Wherever it seemed necessary, I have sup- 
plemented and confirmed the material furnished by Mr. Morrow, 
but by far the most important part of the preparatory division of 
the work was done by him and done conscientiously, intelligently 
and impartially. Although Mr. Morrow is not responsible for a 
word of the text, he has, in a very real sense, collaborated in the 
preparation of this biography. His contribution to it has been 
indispensable and invaluable. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Birthplace, Parentage and Family .... 1 

II. Benjamin Hanna, his Family and his Fortune . 8 

III. Boyhood .17 

IV. The Passing of New Lisbon 28 

V. Early Years in Cleveland 36 

"VI. Marriage and its Results 47 

VII. Business Life in Cleveland 54 

VIII. Miscellaneous Business Interests .... 65 

IX. Mark Hanna and his Employees .... 84 

X. Characteristics in Business 96 

XL Beginnings in Politics 110 

XII. Two Conventions and their Results . . . 120 

XIII. Political Friends and Enemies 140 

J XIV. The Making of a President 164 

XV. The Convention of 1896 190 

XVI. The Campaign of 1896 209 

XVII. Senator by Appointment 228 

XVIII. Senator by Election 242 

XIX. Three Years of Transition 272 

XX. The Convention of 1900 302 

XXI. The Campaign of 1900 .319 

XXII. Ship Subsidies 342 

XXIII. The Death of President McKinley .... 355 

vii 



VUl CONTENTS 

OIIAPTRR PAGB 

XXIV. The Panama Canal 369 

XXV. The Civic Federation and the Labor Problem . 386 

XXVI. The Campaign of 1903 and the Presidential 

Nomination 411 

XXVII. The Death of Mark Hanna 447 

XXVIII. Conclusion 465 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Mr. Hanna in 1903 Frontispiece 

FAOINO PAGE 

The House in New Lisbon in which Mr. Hanna was born. It has 

been changed by the addition of one story .... 8 

The New Lisbon Homestead 18 ' 

Mark and Howard Melville Hanna as Children . . . . 22 "^ 

Mark Hanna as a Boy 24 

The Prospect Street Homestead in Cleveland 36 "" 

Mark Hanna as a Lad of Eighteen 38 

Mark Hanna in 1864 48 ^ 

Mark Hanna about 1871 56 "" 

Mark Hanna about 1877 112 

Mr. Hanna in the Early Nineties 150 

Mr. Hanna in 1901 ^. . . 344 ' 

Facsimile of the Letter written by Mr. Hanna during his Final 

Illness to President Roosevelt 452 



INTRODUCTION 

Before beginning the story of Mark Hanna's life and work I 
want to claim the unprejudiced attention, even of those readers 
who may be predisposed against him. His personality and his 
career are entitled to the fair and serious consideration of his 
opponents in politics and economics. They have a value apart 
from and beyond the controversies in which they were entangled 
during his own life, and in which, from the point of view of many 
Americans, they are still entangled. I do not underemphasize 
the difficulties of giving a fair account of Mr. Hanna's life or of 
passing a disinterested judgment on a man whose public action 
involved so much bitter contention and who so recently died. 
Grave as those difficulties may, be, this book is an attempt to 
overcome them. It must stand or fall on the attempt. 

Like all strong and capable men who fight hard for their own 
political purposes and opinions, Mr. Hanna made many friends 
and many enemies. He was loved and trusted by his friends 
as have been very few American political leaders. He was 
abused and distrusted by his enemies with no less ardor. At 
the outset of his public career the varying estimates of him as a 
man were determined chiefly by the judgments passed upon 
his political purposes and methods. For years he could not 
obtain an unprejudiced hearing, unless it were from his politi- 
cal allies. He was denounced as the living embodiment of a 
greedy, brutalized and remorseless plutocracy; and this de- 
nunciation infected the opinion of many members of his own 
party who had no knowledge of the man. Gradually, however, 
the public estimate of him improved. As his personality be- 
came better known, and as his political opinions became more 
^/ fully expressed, the popular caricature of Mark Hanna began 
to fade from the public mind. The fair-dealing character- 
istic of his own attitude towards other men aroused a corre- 
sponding attitude towards him on the part of a large part of the 



Xii INTRODUCTION 

public. The man himself began to obtain tributes of personal 
appreciation even from his enemies. 

Since his death the favorable impression made by his per- 
sonality has been partly forgotten — except, of course, by his 
friends and associates. But the enmities created during his 
career have been kept alive by the course of political contro- 
versy. Many reformers identify Mr. Hanna with everything 
which they most dislike in the old political and economic order ; 
and reformers, of course, have a license to consider the men and 
things which they dislike as morally reprobate. The early 
caricature of Mark Hanna is reappearing. He is not figured in 
the newspapers as a dollar-mark : but he is described in the 
pages of books and magazine articles as the anti-Christ of the 
new political religion. He is ceasing to be remembered as a 
man, and is becoming a legendary Apotheosis of Property in 
its antagonism to Humanity. 

I shall try in the following pages to bring the real Mark Hanna 
back to life. He cannot be converted into a symbol without 
essential distortion. Men of a drier and more rigid disposition, 
who have been molded by some special intellectual or practical 
discipline, may become sufficiently disembodied to qualify as a 
symbol ; but Mark Hanna's clothes covered an unusually large 
supply of human nature, which was never forced into any special 
mold by an artificial discipline. He was formed under the same 
influences as hundreds of other men in the Middle West who 
combined a business with a political career. He was the same 
kind of a man as the rest of them ; but he was more of a man. 
He lived the kind of life that they lived more energetically, 
more sincerely and more successfully. If he achieved anything 
more than they achieved, or represented anything more than 
they represented, the difference was simply a matter of per- 
sonal prerogative. 

The man did not impose himself on his surroundings or mis- 
represent them. His opinions were the reflection of his experi- 
ence. His system was the outcome of his life. The system 
was, to be sure, largely preoccupied with the purpose of pro- 
tecting property and promoting its increase — as have been all 
political systems since the dawn of civilization. But he did not 
conceive property apart from humanity. He conceived it in a 



INTRODUCTION XllI 

certain traditional relation to humanity, and he regardod the 
rights of property, not as separate from human rights, but simply 
as one class of human rights — which they are. He deserves, 
consequently, to be considered primarily as a man, whose man- 
hood conquered appreciation when it had a chance, and which 
should continue after death to conquer appreciation from other 
men whose critical judgment is not perverted by their ideas. 
His system deserves to be considered, not as incarnate plu- 
tocracy, but as the product of these conditions from which Mark 
Hanna himself derived it, — that is, from the actual, political 
and economic tradition and practice of the Americari Middle 
West. I trust that the reader of the following pages will ap- 
proach them at least provisionally with these ideas in mind. 



CHAPTER I 

BIRTHPLACE, PARENTAGE AND FAMILY 

Marcus Alonzo Hanna was born on September 24, 1837, 
in the town of New Lisbon in Ohio. He belongs, consequently, 
to Ohio's second or third generation — to the generation which 
grew up before the end of the pioneer period, but after the edge 
had been rubbed off of the struggles and hardships of the early 
settlers, and which entered into a comparatively definite and 
abundant social and economic heritage. By the time Mark 
Hanna was of age Ohio had already become Ohio. It was no 
longer a wilderness. It was a settled community whose life 
had assumed characteristics different from those of other neigh- 
boring communities, and was offering to its citizens certain pe- 
culiar business and political opportunities. In 1858 the fact 
that a man hailed from Ohio did almost as much to place him 
as the fact that he hailed from Massachusetts or Virginia. The 
sons of Ohio had begun to be molded by their own state and 
had begun to know and to feel for their political mother. 

New Lisbon is situated in a county on the eastern border of 
Ohio, about sixty miles from Lake Erie — a county which en- 
joys the peculiarly American name of Columbiana. The name 
was derived from mixing the Columbus of history with the ordi- 
nary Anna of domestic life. There is an anecdote that, when the 
adoption of the name was pending in the Legislature, a wag sug- 
gested the further addition of Maria — thus making it read 
Columbiana-Maria. The southeastern end of the county 
just touches the Ohio River, near the bend which it makes in 
turning east towards Pittsburgh ; and this fact had an important 
bearing upon the fortunes of Mark Hanna and of his family. 

The village of New Lisbon, which since 1895 has been called 
Lisbon, was founded in 1803 by Major Lewis Kinney. It grew 
so rapidly that it was soon selected as the county seat. Immi- 
gration poured in from Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virgmia, 

B 1 



2 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

the majority of the newcomers being either Scotch-Irish Pres- 
byterians or German Lutherans, with now and then an adven- 
turous Swiss mechanic. From the beginning industry went 
hand in hand with farming. A powder-mill and two tanner- 
ies were started almost immediately, a wagon shop followed in 
1807 and a tin-shop in 1810. As early as 1808 a blast furnace 
was built a mile from New Lisbon by Gideon Hughes, a Quaker, 
who named it Rebecca in honor of his wife ; and to the Rebecca 
furnace came in 1809 as a skilled workman one James McKin- 
ley, the grandfather of William McKinley. James McKinley 
had migrated from Mercer County, Pennsylvania, bringing with 
him a wife and son eighteen months old. The son, whose name was 
William McKinley, was married in New Lisbon to Nancy Camp- 
bell Allison ; and their son was the subsequent President. Will- 
iam McKinley the second was, however, born in a neighboring 
county, to which his parents had removed after the extinction 
of the Rebecca furnace. 

Some five years after James McKinley settled in New Lis- 
bon, a Scotch-Irish Quaker named Benjamin Hanna moved 
into the town and opened a "general" store. Benjamin was 
of the third generation of Hannas established on American soil. 
His grandparents, Thomas and Elizabeth Hanna, had emi- 
grated from the north of Ireland in 1763. The former is sup- 
posed to be descended from a Patrick Hannay, who in the thir- 
teenth century built and inhabited a house called "Castle Sorby" 
at Galloway, in the southern part of Ayshire. At any rate, the 
Scots who were planted in the Irish county of Ulster during the 
first half of the seventeenth century came chiefly from this part of 
the Scotch Lowlands. Among the children accompanying Thomas 
Hanna was one Robert, who had been born in County Mona- 
ghan, Ireland, in 1753. The family settled at Buckingham in 
Bucks County, Pennsylvania, — a Quaker neighborhood, and 
there Thomas Hanna died within a year of his arrival in the 
Promised Land. 

Robert Hanna was apprenticed to a farmer in the vicinity, 
and worked on various farms thereabouts until he became of 
age. In 1776 he married Catherine Jones in the adjoining 
county of Chester, and in 1779 he and his wife removed to Camp- 
bell County in Virginia. There in cooperation with John Lynch 



BIRTHPLACE, PARENTAGE AND FAMILY 3 

he laid out the city of Lynchburg. They remained in Virginia 
some twenty-two years. Before leaving Pennsylvania they had 
become Quakers, and their eight children, of whom Benjamin 
Hanna was the second, were brought up in that faith. In 1801 
Robert Hanna, his wife and six surviving children migrated in a 
"Conestoga" wagon to the township of Fairfield, Columbiana 
County, Ohio. Later he moved into Middleton township, founded 
the village of Clarkson, and, it is said, built and kept a log-tavern 
at the crossing of two roads. Here, at any rate, Robert and 
Catherine Hanna lived and prospered for fourteen years, during 
which time their children were marrying and dispersing. 

When Benjamin Hanna settled in New Lisbon he was thirty- 
three years old and had been nine years married. His wife was 
Rachel Dixon ^ — a girl of eighteen when he married her, and 
either of Dutch or English descent. Benjamin had passed 
through a good deal of rough frontier discipline. He had not 
shirked the hard work which was necessary to convert a wooded 
wilderness into a cleared, habitable and cultivated country-side. 
He had taken part in the two essential preliminary tasks of sur- 
veying the land, preparatory to its alienation to individuals, and 
of clearing it. According to the statement of his son Kersey, 
he began by buying for $5 an acre forty acres of forest land 
situated some ten miles from New Lisbon. After clearing his 
purchase, he sold it for enough money to buy an additional one 
hundred and sixty acres. The second farm was situated about 
half a mile east of the village of Columbiana, and like the first 

^ Joshua Dixon and Dinah Batten, his wife, moved into Fairfield 
township, Columbiana County, Ohio, from Fayette County, Pennsyl- 
vania, in 1802. They owned two sections of land, 1280 acres, and 
became sufficiently well-to-do to substitute a brick house for their 
first log-cabin. They brought with them to Ohio five sons and six 
daughters, one of each being the fruit of a former marriage of Joshua 
Dixon. Rachel, the wife of Benjamin Hanna, was born in 1785. 
The Dixons were Quakers as well as the Hannas, and the marriage was 
one of the first to be solemnized in Fairfield township according to 
the rites of the sect. Mr. Kersey Hanna, the youngest of Benjamin 
Hanna's sons, states that although his mother's schooling had been very 
limited, she was very quick at figures. During her husband's absence 
she attended to the store, and she was capable of waiting on ten or 
twelve customers in immediate succession, and keeping the bills of each 
accurately in her mind. 



4 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

was heavily timbered. He started in to clear it, but by the 
time he had finished thirty or forty acres, he found the work too 
much for him and his health temporarily undermined. He 
jumped at a good chance, consequently, of adopting some less 
laborious occupation. The country had been so far opened up 
that commerce had begun. In 1812 a group of farmers organ- 
ized a company for the purpose of opening a store for all kinds 
of merchandise at Salem, ten miles north of New Lisbon ; and 
Benjamin Hanna was selected to take charge of it. After 
managing this store for about two years, he sold his interest 
in it and opened a store of his own in New Lisbon. There he 
lived until his death in 1853, and there his children and many 
of his children's children were brought up. 

To Benjamin and Rachel Hanna were bom thirteen children, 
all but two of whom survived to middle age.^ One of them. 
Kersey Hanna, born in 1824, did not die until 1909. He has 
contributed many interesting reminiscences to the following 
account of the family's life in New Lisbon. Among other 
things he could recollect vividly certain journeys which he used 
to take as a boy of twelve with his grandfather, Robert Hanna. 
The old man used to travel around from the house of one of his 
children to that of another, and he liked to have the boy with 
him. It is interesting that a man living in 1909 should remem- 
ber the Scotch-Irish immigrant boy who came to the colonies 
in 1763. These two connecting lives bound American history 
from the agitation for the repeal of the stamp act to the admin- 
istration of William Howard Taft. 

Of Benjamin and Rachel Hanna's eleven children who sur- 
vived childhood, seven were boys and four were girls. They 

^ The following is a list of Benjamin and Rachel Hanna's children : 
(1) Joshua, Nov. 8, 1804 — died July 7, 1881 ; (2) Leonard, March 
4, 1806 — died Dec. 15, 1862; (3) Levi, Feb. 7, 1808 — died 
May 5, 1898; (4) Zalinda, Feb. 23, 1810 — died Dec. 4, 1854; 
(5) Robert, Aug. 15, 1812 — died April 3, 1882 ; (6 and 7) Tryphena, 
and Tryphosa, twins, June 12, 1814 — died May 23, 1893, and Jan. 
17, 1815; (8) Rebecca, Sept. 21, 1816 — died Oct. 15, 1847; 
(9) Thomas B., May 22, 1818 — died Nov. 9, 1885 ; (10) Anna, March 
3, 1821 — died Jan. 26, 1846; (11) Benjamin J., March 14, 1823 
— died April 3, 1881 ; (12) Kersey, Oct. 6, 1824 — died 1909 ; 
(13) Elizabeth, June 12, 1827 — died Jan. 28, 1833. 



BIRTHPLACE, PARENTAGE AND FAMILY 5 

were a fine, tall, vigorous family. The shortest of the brothers 
measured five feet and eleven inches in height. The tallest 
measured six feet three. The average was about six feet — 
so they were called "forty-two feet of Hanna." As they grew 
up some of the children deserted their home for one cause or 
another; but the majority of them remained with their father 
and made their lives in New Lisbon. 

All the children except one were educated in the ordinary 
schools of New Lisbon, which at that time were private and 
according to all accounts most inferior. The exception was Leon- 
ard, who was trained for a professional career. After getting 
what preliminary schooling he could at home, he was sent to a 
small college in the neighboring county of Washington in 
Pennsylvania, and from there went to Philadelphia, where he 
graduated from the Rush Medical College. George B. McClel- 
lan's father was a professor in the institution at the time of 
Leonard Hanna's attendance. He returned to New Lisbon to 
practise his profession ; but his career as a physician was ham- 
pered and curtailed by an accident. In mounting his horse, 
preparatory to a visit to one of his patients, he had barely 
thrown his leg over the saddle, when the animal shied and he 
was thrown heavily to the ground. His spine was injured and 
thereafter he suffered much with headaches, the attacks some- 
times lasting as long as two or three weeks. The injury finally 
resulted in his death from the softening of the brain. Partly 
because of his infirmity he ceased the practice of medicine and 
joined his brothers Joshua and Robert in helping their father 
in the conduct of a continually growing business. 

It must have been shortly after his accident that Dr. Leon- 
ard Hanna married ; and as one of the best educated men in 
the town he not unnaturally married a school-teacher — Sa- 
mantha Converse by name. Her parents. Porter and Rhoda 
Howard Converse, had migrated from Randolph, Vermont, to 
Ohio in 1824. Originally the Converse family^ were Huguenots, 
having fled to Ireland after the massacre of St. Bartholomew ; 
but presumably the French blood had been tolerably well diluted 

* There is a history of the Converse family by Geo. O. Converse of 
Columbus, Ohio — at one time a Representative in Congress. 



6 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

by the end of the eighteenth century. Porter Converse had been 
trained as a lawyer, but became a merchant after moving to 
Ohio. His wife, Rhoda Howard, derived from an old and excel- 
lent English family, and is stated to have been a woman of great 
energy of purpose. She lived to be eighty-seven years old. 
At the time of their migration they had four children — three 
daughters and one son. A fourth daughter, Miss Helen Con- 
verse, was born in Ohio. A son of Caroline, one of Samantha 
Converse's sisters, Porter Harbaugh by name, was living in 
1905 in the neighborhood of New Lisbon. According to his 
statement his mother rode all the way from Vermont on horse- 
back. The switch with which she accelerated the animal's 
pace was planted after her arrival and grew to be a large tree. 
She used to call it a Vermont white plum. Cuttings were 
given to friends and neighbors — whereby the original switch 
had a numerous progeny throughout the neighboring part 
of Ohio. 

One cannot help suspecting that it is the story which has 
grown rather than the switch ; and the suspicion is partly jus- 
tified by Miss Helen Converse's positive statement that her 
family migrated to Ohio in a real carriage — described as a wide, 
old-fashioned vehicle on springs. It would accommodate three 
people comfortably on the back seat. The whole family rode 
all day in their conveyance, usually making about thirty miles 
and putting up every night at inns. Miss Converse had 
never heard of the fruitful switch — which none the less may 
have existed ; but her account of the manner of her family's 
migration must be authentic. The Converses possessed means 
above the average of emigrants. One of Mark Hanna's sis- 
ters, Mrs. Jay C. Morse, remembers tales of her mother's about 
the silver tankards and plate which the Howards had brought 
with them from England. 

Vermont has been said to be the most glorious spot on the 
face of the globe to be born in, provided you emigrate when you 
are young. Samantha Converse was eleven years old when she 
arrived in Ohio. Her family, coming as they did from New 
England, settled in Geauga County in the Western Reserve. 
Miss Converse became a school teacher, and went to New Lis- 
bon for the purpose of using her knowledge to earn her living. 



\ 



BIRTHPLACE, PARENTAGE AND FAMILY 7 

There she met Dr. Leonard Hanna and married him on Sept. 
10, 1835, their ages being respectively twenty-nPe and twenty- 
three. Their second child but their first son, born, as I have 
said, on Sept. 24, 1837, was named Marcus Alonzo llanna. 

Such was Mark Hanna's ancestry, of which any American 
might well be proud. It includes a compound of the best strains y 
entering into the American racial stock, in his father's blood 
there was a Scotch-Irish, a Welsh and an English or Dutcf^ 
strain. On his mother's side a French Huguenot, an Irish and 
an English infusion may be plainly traced. If a thorough mix- 
ture of many good racial ingredients constitutes, as is now usu-( " ' 
ally supposed, an heredity favorable to individual energy and "^ 
distinction, Mark Hanna started life with that basic advan- 
tage — an advantage which the historians of the state like to 
proclaim is enjoyed by an unusual proportion of the old fami- 
lies of Ohio. It is claimed with suflficient plausibility that a 
peculiarly fortunate group of conditions operated to select as 
the early settlers of Ohio the very best elements in the popula- 
tion of the older states, and that the exceptional prominence of 
the Ohio-born in American political and economic life since the 
Civil War must be attributed to this excellence of stock. Some 
foundatif.n of truth may be granted to this explanation, with- 
out ma- ng Mark Hanna or the other eminent sons of Ohio 
any less individually responsible for their own careers. Peas- 
antry and gentlefolk, Scotch, English, Irish, French and Dutch, 
New England, Pennsylvania and Virginia, Calvinism and Qua- 
kerism, — all the vague influences and forces associated with 
these names entered into his physical and social inheritance. 
He became by virtue thereof a tolerably typical American — 
which means a man whose past is so miscellaneous that he is 
obliged to seek for himself some form of effective personal 
definition. 



CHAPTER II 

BENJAMIN HANNA, HIS FAMILY AND HIS FORTUNE 

The early settlers of Columbiana County entered into a nat- 
ural inheritance as rich and varied as their own blood. Its 
situation on the Ohio River adjoining the border of Pennsyl- 
vania was favorable. Its natural resources were abundant 
and diversified. The northern part of the county was undulat- 
ing and excellently adapted to cultivation. Its southern half 
was more rugged and broken, and was on the whole better 
adapted for grazing than for tillage. In 1840 it stood first 
among the counties of Ohio in the production of wool. Along 
the bottom lands on the water courses, sycamore, walnut, 
maple and chestnut trees flourished. On the tops of the hills 
grew an abundance of pine and spruce. Coal, iron nre, clay 
and quarries were all to be found of good quality and/j 'lantity. 
In short, the county was a smaller copy of the whoL\^ate and 
afforded the best of opportunities for a combined ag^ .iultural 
and industrial development. 

New Lisbon was located in the southern part of the county 
in the township of Centre. Its site consists of a stretch of level 
or bottom land running east and west on the middle fork of the 
Little Beaver Creek. To the north is a long, high hill, once 
crowned with a deep forest, up the side of which the village 
gradually spread. West and south of the village there stretches 
a formidable group of steep hills, the summits of which aTord 
many picturesque views of a broken landscape. The hill to 
the south is particularly precipitous, and from the abundance 
of evergreens on its sides, used to be known as Pine Hill. Its 
proximity to the village, its rocks and its woods naturally 
made it the favorite playground of the village boys. 

When Benjamin Hanna settled in New Lisbon in 1814 he 
leased a house in the centre of the village, which he used both as a 

8 




a 



BENJAMIN HANNA, HIS FAMILY AND HIS FORTUNE 9 

store and as a residence. He did not in the beginning depend 
for his subsistence exclusively upon the shop. He also owned 
a farm on the hill to the north of the town, but in all probability 
the shop soon came to occupy all his time. A storekeeper in a 
village in the interior of Ohio in the year 1815 had his difficul- 
ties. Philadelphia was the most convenient point from New 
Lisbon for the purchase of stock — all of which had to be hauled 
the length of the state of Pennsylvania over barbarous roads 
by means of six- and eight-horse teams. The transportation 
of every hundred pounds of freight in this laborious fashion 
cost the merchant between $5 and $10 — the average rate 
being about $8.50 ; and it was probably about as difficult for 
a man to finance his business as it was for him to procure his 
stock. During the early years there was so little currency in 
the country that trade was usually a matter of barter, and if 
currency was used, the medium of exchange was generally 
deerskins. 

For a generation and more the economic development of Ohio 
and the other pioneer states was at first hampered and then 
determined in its form and distribution by the available means 
of transportation. Difficult as it was for the merchant, the 
situation of the farmer was worse. His bulky products could 
not be transported to market, and in the beginning the best 
that he could do was to feed his grain to stock and drive the ani- 
mals across the mountains to the seaboard. The expense of 
this way of obtaining some purchasing power from the land was 
too great to endure. The roads were gradually improved. The 
flat steamboat made transportation by the Ohio River acces- 
sible to many counties of the state. Local markets of some 
value were created. Nevertheless, these improvements af- 
fected different parts of the state unevenly, and they were not 
sufficient to dispose of the products of the farms without occa- 
sional spells of ruinous congestion and low prices. The losses 
and difficulties from which so many of the pioneers of Ohio suf- 
fered must be remembered as the explanation for their subse- 
quent craze for internal improvements and the large amount of 
money wasted therein. The business life of a storekeeper like 
Benjamin Hanna was one long fight, first against the expense 
and delays of transportation, and then against the relatively 



10 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

better means of transportation which other parts of the state 
had obtained. 

In the end he was, as we shall see, broken by the struggle, 
but he had nevertheless a long preliminary period of pros- 
perity. Steamboat navigation of the Ohio River eased some 
of his difficulties, and the construction of the Cumberland Road 
a good many more. New Lisbon itself was prosperous, and he 
benefited from the increased purchasing and selling powers of 
his neighbors. New Lisbon became, indeed, one of the busiest 
and most popular markets in eastern Ohio. Kersey Hanna 
states that his father had customers who travelled fifty or sixty 
miles to do business at the store. A couple of much frequented 
roads crossed the village, and three lines of stages gathered and 
distributed passengers from every direction. A newspaper had 
been started in German as early as 1808, but later it was trans- 
formed into the Ohio Patriot, and under that name still 
survives. There was at that time no printing establishment in 
Cleveland, and legal notices were for a while sent all the way to 
New Lisbon for publication in the Patriot. 

Half a dozen stray bits of testimony prove both the increas- 
ing prosperity of Benjamin Hanna and his importance among 
his fellow-townsmen. He soon dispensed with his rented house, 
and built for himself on the public square a two-story brick 
store and residence, the living rooms being separated from the 
shop only by a partition. Kersey Hanna was born in this 
building in 1824, and so was Mark Hanna thirteen years later. 
It is standing to-day, and is changed only by the addition of 
another story. After the incorporation of the village by a 
special act of the Legislature in 1825 the first board of officers 
was organized on May 10, 1826, in Benjamin Hanna's dwelling, 
and he was chosen to be one of the trustees. Joshua, his first 
son, apparently had something to do with the business. At all 
events, he made a trip to Philadelphia in 1829, presumably to 
purchase stock, and was authorized to obtain for the village a 
hand fire-engine. Later, when again in Philadelphia, he bought 
for S485.39 a much improved machine, and on his way back 
remained in Pittsburgh long enough to add a dozen leather fire 
buckets to the equipment of the town. Finally, when the Co- 
lumbiana Bank of New Lisbon was revived in 1834 or 1835, after 



BENJAMIN HANNA, HIS FAMILY AND HIS FORTUNE 11 

having been dormant for a number of years, both Benjamin and 
Joshua Hanna were elected directors. Joshua Hanna was 
also director of the Columbiana Mutual Insurance Company of 
New Lisbon, while at a somewhat later date, another brother, 
Robert Hanna, became president of the association. 

These sufficiently petty details are worth mentioning, because 
they establish the position occupied by Benjamin Hanna and 
his sons in New Lisbon at the time of Mark Hanna's birth and 
boyhood. They had become one of the leading families of the 
town, and local capitalists of unimpeachable standing. Ben- 
jamin Hanna himself did not continue to live back of the store. 
He bought and inhabited still another farm on the edge of the 
town. Joshua, the eldest son, built for his own occupancy a 
fine brick house on the brow of the hill overlooking the valley. 
Leonard Hamia, also, soon after the birth of Mark, moved into 
a house of his own, situated on High Street, which ran through 
a different part of the same hill. It was a spacious square build- 
ing of some dignity, and betrayed a lingering allegiance to 
Colonial forms. It was crowned by a low pyramidal roof, 
broken by dormers, and its corners were emphasized by pilas- 
ters. On the front was a large entrance porch, which served as 
a piazza. Robert Hanna, also, had a separate establishment ; 
and capital was supplied to Levi, wherewith to start a brewery — 
a business which was later abandoned because of the conversion 
of a large part of the family to the cause of temperance. 

A business which was profitable enough to maintain about 
thirty feet of filial Hanna was obviously something more than 
a retail store. As a matter of fact, Benjamin and his sons were 
apparently the leading wholesale and commission merchants 
in what was then one of the busiest trading towns in eastern 
Ohio. Just how many of the sons were made partners in the 
business is not certain. The membership of the firm varied at 
different times. Accounts, due-bills and notes found among 
Mark Hanna's papers indicate that Benjamin Hanna, Leonard 
Hanna and Thomas B. Hanna were partners in business under 
the firm name of B., L., & T. Hanna as early as August, 1842, 
and as late as May, 1849. 

They were less interested in politics than were the majority 
of the successful men of their generation. Only one out of 



12 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

Benjamin Hanna's seven capable and energetic sons 'had any 
, political ambition. No doubt the fact that they were Quakers, 
' and in particular Hicksite Quakers, had something to do with 
this peculiarity. The sect had a tendency to keep away from 
political contentions and responsibilities; and no one of the 
Hanna family even served in the Legislature or held anything 
but a town office. They were nevertheless men of definite 
political convictions. Benjamin and all his sons were Whigs — 
an allegiance which followed naturally from their mercantile in- 
terests. Those who survived until the War became Republicans. 

As Quakers they protested vigorously against slavery. After 
1800 many Quakers had migrated from Virginia into Ohio, so 
that they might live in a state untainted by human bondage. 
In all probability Robert Hanna's final migration had been 
determined by the wish to escape from the neighborhood of 
such an institution. These Quakers later became a soil for 
the growth of anti-slavery feeling in Ohio ; and when the under- 
ground railroad was started the majority of the stations were 
situated in their houses. The sympathies of the Hanna family are 
plainly indicated by the assistance they gave to this dangerous 
traffic. In the cellar of Joshua Hanna's fine brick house there 
had been built a secret room, which was used as a place of con- 
cealment for fugitive slaves; and presumably the rest of the 
family knew and approved of its existence. 

As was also natural in Hicksite Quakers they had an instinc- 
tive sympathy with agitations for moral reform. The period 
from 1840 until 1855 was one of lively ferment of opinion, in 
which the preachers of all kinds of reforming creeds found many 
listeners and many followers. The most vital movement of 
this kind, abolitionism apart, was that in favor of temperance. 
The pioneer American ^ consumed a huge amount of raw spirits, 
being provoked thereto both by its cheapness and by the thirst 

^"In May, 1832," to quote a local history, "George Graham made 
application for a license to retail spirituous liquors at the corner 
of the Public Square and Market Street. The council, being satis- 
fied that he was a person of good moral character, granted a license 
for one year for the consideration of $10. Before adjournment it was 
decided that the next meeting of the council be held in George Graham's 
back room." 



BENJAMIN HANNA, HIS FAMILY AND HIS FORTUNE 13 

inevitably created by his daily consumption of bacon and salt 
pork. Local distilleries were among the earliest manufacturing 
enterprises in all pioneer communities. One had been started 
in New Lisbon soon after the settlement of the town, and its 
product was sold for only twenty-five cents a gallon. The first 
attempt to counteract the evils of the large amount of result- 
ing intoxication took the mild form of temperance societies, 
whose members pledged themselves to confine their drinking 
to wine and beer. 

Sterner methods and measures were, however, needed in 
order to check the serious evils of gross and general intoxica- 
tion. In 1847 one of the famous six drunkards of Baltimore, 
who had been preaching total abstinence all over the country 
with great success, invaded New Lisbon, and held meetings every 
night for three weeks. No hall in the town was big enough 
to contain his audiences. The largest church was crowded, 
and outside in the street were overflow meetings. They had 
apparently a profound and lasting effect on the community. 
The Hannas had always been temperate, but some of them, at 
least, now became total abstainers. The brewery operated by 
Levi Hanna was sold, and the two youngest sons of Benjamin 
were among the charter members of the Total Abstinence Society. 

It was, however, Leonard Hanna, Mark Hanna's father, who 
took the most prominent part of any of the family in the tem- 
perance movement of eastern Ohio. He was the only fraction 
of the forty-two feet who had an inclination towards public 
speaking or a gift for it. He is described as a fluent and 
forcible speaker, who possessed preeminently the power of 
interesting and dominating even an unsympathetic audience. 
After the visit of the eminent Baltimore drunkard. Dr. Hanna 
carried on the agitation for many years in the vicinity of New 
Lisbon. His son, H. Melville Hanna, who was two years 
younger than Mark, can remember the tenor of a number of his 
father's temperance addresses. As was natural for a physician, 
he emphasized rather the physiological than the moral argu- 
ments for total abstinence. Habitual whiskey drinkers, he 
said, were only half as likely to recover from acute ailments ; 
and in the case of severe surgical operations their chances were 
even smaller. 



14 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

Leonard Hanna, however, was not merely a lecturer on tem- 
perance. He was the only exception in the family to the gen- 
eral abstention from an active interest in politics. The extent 
of this interest is difficult to establish, but undoubtedly he 
ranked among the abler and more popular Whig stump speakers 
in that part of Ohio. He was compared by many to Tom Cor- 
win, who was the leading popular orator among the Whigs. 
According to the custom of the day, he used to hold joint de- 
bates with prominent Democrats, the two verbal contestants 
travelling together from town to town in the same carriage. His 
opponent on one occasion was Edwin M. Stanton. On another 
occasion (according to Kersey Hanna) Dr. Hanna and David 
Todd held eleven joint discussions in different parts of the 
Western Reserve — one of them in Cleveland. If this is so, 
Leonard Hanna must have enjoyed a very considerable reputa- 
tion as a political orator, for David Todd, afterwards the second 
of Ohio's war governors, was one of the most conspicuous 
Democrats in the state and a speaker of recognized ability and 
force. 

Nevertheless Dr. Leonard Hanna was apparently not elected 
to any public office. His nearest approach to election occurred, 
according to the statement of his brother Kersey, in 1844, when 
he ran for Congress as a Whig and cut down the Democratic 
majority in his district from about 5000 to about 300 votes. 
A failure of this kind gives a man as much renown as would ac- 
tual success ; and there is every indication that Dr. Hanna stood 
exceptionally well among his political associates in Ohio. When 
H. Melville Hanna went to Washington at the beginning of the 
War to be examined for admission into the navy, he called on 
Senator Benjamin Wade at his father's request, and was warmly 
greeted by that rough old anti-slavery warrior. He was glad to 
do anything he could for Dr. Leonard Hanna's son. 

His interest in politics apparently diminished very much 
towards the end of his life. His son, H. Melville, states that a 
friend once asked his father, "Why didn't you stay in politics ?" 
"Because," the doctor replied, "I would have to get into the 
mud," which sounds well, but is hardly sufficient. Doubtless 
certain aspects of political life were repellent to his Puritan and 
Quaker training, but probably both his health and his busi- 



BENJAMIN HANNA, HIS FAMILY AND HIS FORTUNE 15 

ness interests had much to do with his diminishing poHtical 
activity. Soon after 1847 the family suffered reverses in busi- 
ness, which resulted in its dispersal in 1852. Dr. Hanna was 
forced to start his business career all over again under novel 
surroundings; and his new work and its heavier responsibili- 
ties could not have left him much leisure for politics. 

Nevertheless, it is significant that the only one of Benjamin 
Hanna's sons who exhibited any active personal interest in 
politics was Mark Hanna's father; and this interest was ap- 
parently merely one expression of a versatile and sympathetic 
disposition, which was aroused to action by every serious call 
made upon him by his domestic and social surroundings. In 
addition to being a business man and a political speaker, he was 
an energetic temperance reformer, and he always retained a 
lively interest in his early profession. It was a period in which 
one man could easily and acceptably play many parts, and in 
which a man of an essential social and communicative disposi- 
tion was inevitably driven to play many parts. The better 
men of that generation tended to spread their personal energy 
over a very large area. 

In the case of Dr. Hanna the business interest was dominant, 
and the others only subordinate. He was a man who acted from 
personal rather than impersonal motives, from sympathies and 
affections rather than from strong purpose. In the absence 
of any special bent for professional or political life, he merged 
his own interest with that of the family. By the year 1840 
there were not very many men in Ohio, outside of Cincinnati, 
who were as much like capitalists as Benjamin Hanna and his 
sons. The careers of the sons were determined by the oppor- 
tunities which their father was able to offer to them ; and in 
accepting this opportunity Dr. Leonard Hanna was apparently 
the only one who sacrificed other personal interests of any 
great importance. He did not travel very far either as a phy- 
sician, a politician or a business man, but if his efficiency was 
diminished by his versatility, the same quality served only to 
increase the attraction of his personality. 

H. Melville Hanna tells a story about his father and grand- 
father which is both touching and amusing, and which may 
fitly terminate this sketch of Mark Hanna's immediate for- 



16 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

bears. After Dr. Leonard Hanna had moved to Cleveland in. 
1852, he frequently returned to New Lisbon to see Benjamin 
Hanna, who by that time was a very old and a very sick man. 
While talking over his ailments with his son, who retained in 
the family the authority of a physician, Benjamin said, "Dr. 
Speaker has stopped my smoking, Leonard. What dost thee 
think about it?" The other answered nothing, but going to 
the big mahogany sideboard, filled his father's pipe, gave it 
to him and lighted it. The old man took a few puffs and 
then said, "I was sure, Leonard, that thee knew more than 
Dr. Speaker." 



CHAPTER III 

BOYHOOD 

In the house of Dr. Leonard Hanna there seems to have been 
less discipline and more kindliness than was usual in American 
homes of that period. Discipline there was, for Samantha 
Converse Hanna had inherited the traditions of domestic 
New England, and as Dr. Hanna was frequently away from 
home for days and weeks on end, the mother's authority was 
dominant and pervasive. She exercised it decisively but with 
fairness and good judgment. She is described as a woman of 
positive character, energetic mind and considerable executive 
ability. Her active life was centred around her home and 
children, but she was social by instinct, and under less primitive 
social conditions she would have entertained liberally. As 
it was, whenever any conspicuous man came to New Lisbon, 
she always wanted to have him at her table. 

Dr. Hanna, on the other hand, was preeminently a kindly 
and an easy-going man. He did not believe in the practice of 
flogging, which at that time prevailed in many American homes ; 
and, as we shall see, he was inclined to let his children have 
their own way. While his wife was bright but not witty, he 
had an Irishman's love of a good joke. Miss Hattie Converse, 
a cousin of Samantha Hanna, and for a while a school-teacher 
in the town, lived with the family ; and she and Dr. Hanna were 
continually exchanging jokes and sharpening their wits at each 
other's expense. 

The Leonard Hanna household was not only unusually genial 
for its time and place, but it was also unusually refined. The 
Converses were much more like gentlefolks than were the 
average pioneer settlers in the Western States. Samantha 
Hanna had a taste for flowers, ornaments and good furniture, 
and their house itself was an exceptionally good-looking build- 
ing for Ohio in 1840. Whenever Leonard Hanna made one 
c 17 



18 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

of his frequent trips to Philadelphia on business, his wife loaded 
him with commissions. Their furniture was all imported from 
the East, and what was still more unusual, the yard was planted 
with shrubbery, which had also to be obtained from the sea- 
board. The table was abundant, the food well-cooked, the 
linen of excellent quality, and the children well-clothed. All to- 
gether very few Ohio boys of that time were brought up in such 
a well-equipped, well-ordered and genial home. 

Of course, it remained very simple, and all hands had to 
share in the work. If Mark Hanna escaped the scars of that 
grim struggle for existence in which most Americans of the 
previous, and to a large extent of his own, generation were 
engaged, he was certainly not brought up in idleness. As soon 
as he was old enough, he did his share of work in the field, 
and he had certain regular chores assigned to him, such as driv- 
ing the cows to pasture. There were no gentlemen of leisure 
in a Middle Western town before the War. Of course there 
were loafers, but they were called loafers. The possession even 
of considerable means did not entitle a man or his sons to aban- 
don labor with their own hands. 

In religion a mitigation of the earlier Puritanism had already 
taken place. Benjamin Hanna's sons did not remain strict 
Quakers. One of the laws of the association was that any per- 
son who was married outside the church or who was married 
by anybody but a Quaker minister should be disowned. The 
application of this rule left Leonard Hanna and all his brothers 
except Kersey outside the pale. It does not appear, however, 
that they became active in any other denomination. Their 
situation made them tolerant, and the process of religious 
emasculation which begins in toleration usually ends in indif- 
ference. Kersey Hanna stated that Leonard, in spite of certain 
doctrinal disagreements with the Hicksite Quakers, considered 
himself to be by conviction a member of that sect. Never- 
theless, after leaving New Lisbon, he regularly attended the 
Presbyterian Church, to which his wife belonged, without be- 
coming a Presbji:erian himself. Thus in the matter of reli- 
gious training the earlier rigorous standards were very much 
relaxed ; and Mark Hanna as a boy could, as we shall see, 
joke with impunity about his religious convictions. 



BOYHOOD 19 

Mark was assuredly a good-looking boy. Neither he nor his 
brothers were as tall as the previous generation of Hannas, 
and Mark himself, when he grew up, looked almost short, be- 
cause his broad and powerful frame seemed to need a few 
more inches of height. His uncle Kersey Hanna describes 
him as short, strong and rugged, with a full round figure. 
On the other hand, most of his playmates recollect him as al- 
most slender. His complexion was fair, his hair browTi and his 
expression frank, serious and communicative. But both as boy 
and man the most striking part of his personal appearance were 
his big, alert, shrewd, searching brown eyes, which, like his taper- 
ing fingers, he inherited from his father and which he alone of 
his father's sons did inherit. In this as in certain other respects 
Mark Hanna was another version of his father with better 
health, more energy and more purpose. 

In describing the life led by the boys of Mark Hanna's genera- 
tion in New Lisbon and certain aspects of their education, we 
have one very excellent authority. Shortly after Senator 
Hanna's death, a boyhood friend and playmate. Dr. Henry G. 
McCook, published a "Threnody" on Mr. Hanna, the notes to 
which contain an abundance of facts and stories about New 
Lisbon in the forties; and the reader may be referred to that 
volume in case he would like to know more than I shall tell him 
about the place, its youthful inhabitants, their occupations 
and sports. 

He says nothing about the first school which Mark Hanna 
attended, which was kept by his mother's cousin. Miss Hattie 
Converse. Other schoolmates of Mr. Hanna have, however, fur- 
nished several authentic stories about this episode, each of which 
throws some light upon the school, the boy and the relations 
between the boy and his teacher. One lady who went to Miss 
Converse's school describes her fellow-pupil as pale and slender, 
but active and mischievous. He was accused of pushing a 
little boy over a bank on the hillside where a number of chil- 
dren were picking sorrel. Miss Converse evidently thought 
the offence extremely culpable, for she made him take off his 
coat, and switched him sharply on his bare arms — all of which 
frightened the little girls and made them burst into tears. On 
another occasion he was whipped for being late. Before going 



20 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

to school, he had to drive the cows to pasture, and on this par- 
ticular morning they got away from him, and caused him, ac- 
cording to his own account, much trouble and loss of time 
in getting them together again. Miss Converse listened to this 
excuse for his tardy arrival and doubted its truth. Mark 
stuck to his story, said that he had never told a lie and was not 
then telling one. But he was none the less punished. In the 
end Dr. Hanna heard of the fault, its punishment, privately 
verified Mark's excuse and rebuked the doubting teacher. 

There are other indications that Mark did not get along well 
with his mother's cousin. One day Miss Converse found him 
loitering in the street after school was over, instead of making 
straight for home after the manner of really virtuous lads. 
Here was an opening, which the excellent pedagog could not 
overlook ; but when she took him to task, he did not tamely 
submit. He asserted that her authority did not extend be- 
yond the school building and grounds. She asserted that it 
did. The issue was presented to his parents, and they decided 
in his favor, and in this decision had the support of public opin- 
ion. The episode indicates a disposition to stand up for his 
personal rights rare in so small a lad, and confidence in him on 
the part of his parents. It also indicates that even in 1845, 
in a small Middle Western town, the American boy was coming 
into his own. There were parents who could understand a 
boyish propensity to loiter, and there were children who were 
beginning to discover and insist upon the great American do- 
mestic principle of filial authority. 

But I do not wonder that Miss Hattie Converse, who played 
the part of King George in this new struggle for independence, 
disliked her mischievous pupil. Like many other ladies, she had 
a peculiar horror of snakes. Several witnesses assert that Mark 
used to conceal little garter snakes in her text-books, and so 
cause her the utmost discomfiture. Whether he was switched 
for this offence, as he very well deserved, the records are silent. 

They are also silent as to the length of time that Mark at- 
tended Miss Converse's school, and they conflict as to the 
identity of his next school-teacher. The most renowned and 
popular school in New Lisbon during Mark's boyhood was kept 
by a Scotch-Irishman named David Anderson. This man, whose 



BOYHOOD 21 

rugged character was typical of many of the pioneer pedagogs of 
the Middle West, began to teach in Lisbon about 1835, and con- 
tinued to do so until obliged to retire by failing health in 1872. 
He was a stern, hard Puritan, who did not scruple to use the 
ruler on his pupils, and apparently needed in the exercise of his 
calling some warlike weapon. The story is that, when he at- 
tempted to chastise some big culprit, he was assaulted by his 
victim, and only escaped a thrashing by virtue of the assist- 
ance rendered by the rest of his pupils. Yet his pupils, ap- 
parently, did not have any reason to be fond of him. He wore 
rubber shoes, and would step silently up behind his boys 
when they were supposed to be writing on their slates. If he 
found them drawing pictures or scribbling messages, he would 
box them soundly on the ears — first on one side and then on 
the other, as the head was forced over by the force of the first 
blow. He was also subject to violent outbursts of temper, 
which are attributed by one witness to the influence of a malevo- 
lent wife — a lady who in her playful moods used to threaten 
her husband with a butcher's knife and was popularly supposed 
to be a witch. 

In spite, however, of his peculiarities, in spite of his sedulous 
laying on of two rulers, one round and one flat, in spite of his 
assumption of authority over the behavior of his pupils outside 
of the schoolroom, his memory is still reverenced in New Lisbon. 
Some years ago a fund was collected from his former pupils 
with which to erect a permanent memorial to the village 
teacher, but the project fell through, because of the failure of the 
bank in which the accumulated funds had been deposited. He 
was, apparently, with all his tantrums, his cuffings and his busy 
rulers, a kind-hearted man. The statement that he would be 
amiable and cheerful for the whole day whenever a new pupil 
happened in and paid the fee of two dollars for the first quar- 
ter, points to a hard and a fruitless fight against poverty as 
well as domestic unhappiness. No wonder that his temper 
was none of the best and his discipline harsh. The fact that in 
spite of all his failings the memory of "Davy" Anderson is 
cherished in New Lisbon sufficiently proves that when the 
books were balanced, his pupils could place to his credit a great 
deal of rough but effective elementary and moral schooling. 



22 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

I have paused for a moment over the description of David 
Anderson and his school, because of the light which the man, 
his methods and circumstances throw upon the New Lisbon of 
the decade from 1840 to 1850 ; but there is some doubt whether 
Mark Hanna was ever cuffed and drilled by the irascible Scotch- 
Irishman. At the local centennial celebration in 1903 the 
names of Mark Hanna and "Davy" Anderson, as the two most 
renowned celebrities of New Lisbon, were continually being 
coupled. Speaking of Anderson, the Senator said to the Hon. 
Chas. C. Connell, who had been writing a history of the town 
prepared for the occasion: "I don't like to spoil your story, 
Connell; but I never went to school with 'Davy' Anderson." 
On the other hand. Dr. Henry C. McCook distinctly states that 
he and Mark Hanna attended "Davy" Anderson's school; 
and Howard Melville Hanna is equally emphatic in testifying 
to the same effect. There is no way now of definitely settling 
it; but if Mark Hanna ever did attend "Davy's" .school, it 
could not have been for long. There is evidence that from 1850 
to 1852 he was sent to another school-teacher ; and authentic 
incidents connected with his attendance of Miss Converse's 
school indicate that he must have been at that time a boy of 
ten or twelve. Perhaps a father who objected to flogging, and 
who supported his son in a rebellion against the exercise of a 
school-teacher's authority outside of school hours, would have 
been loath to submit his son to "Davy" Anderson's rule and 
rulers. 

When the "Union-School System" of graded public schools 
was adopted, Mark Hanna apparently went to public school. 
In the general re-grading and distribution of the children, 
Mark Hanna and Henry McCook were assigned to the high 
school, and were made deskmates. The school was lodged in 
the basement of the Presbyterian Church, and here Mark 
continued his education until he left New Lisbon. "As I 
recall him," says Dr. McCook, "in the 'roundabout' or tailless 
coat then worn by boys, he was a ruddy-cheeked youth, rather 
slightly built, certainly not stout or stocky — a pleasant, 
wholesome fellow, clean of tongue and with more polish of man- 
ners than many of his playmates. Nevertheless, we were in 
several school scrapes together, in one of which the writer saved 




Mark and Howard Melville Hanna as Children 



BOYHOOD 23 

his deskmate from a thrashing by resisting the teacher in what 
was by our schoolroom standards an unlawful mode of punish- 
ment. This diverted attention from my fellow-culprit, who 
in the melee went scot-free." Dr. McCook adds: "Several 
teachers had charge of the high school during the pupilage of 
the Senator and his deskmate, but the one who wielded the 
greatest and most wholesome influence upon our characters 
was Reuben McMillan. To him the writer owes more than any 
other instructor in school or college ; and this affection and this 
gratitude were shared during his school life, at least, by Mr. 
Hanna." 

Before leaving the subject of Mark Hanna's schooling in New 
Lisbon, attention must be called to an unofficial source of in- 
struction and training which the lad shared with some of his 
playmates. On Jan. 12, 1850, there was instituted the "Poly- 
delphian Society of New Lisbon," a debating club, whose con- 
stitution and behavior are so well described in a letter written 
by General Anson G. McCook, then Secretary of the United States 
Senate to Major W. W. Armstrong of Cleveland in April, 1892, 
that I reproduce it in part: "With what interest you read [in 
a book containing the constitution and minutes of the society] 
of the efforts to provide for every possible contingency to make our 
debating society a success — the elaborate way in which we pro- 
vided for the duties of the officers — the limitations we placed 
upon debate, peremptorily shutting off long-winded orations — 
the amount of fines to be imposed upon disorderly members, 
running from ' 5 to 25 cents ' — the power, as we expressed it in 
terms that very closely resemble a provision in the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, to lay and collect taxes for necessary 
purposes — the express provision that no one shall address the 
chair except upon his feet and the positive prohibition 'that 
no member should be permitted to whistle or eat in the society ' ; 
all expressed in quaint and boyish phraseology but with un- 
mistakable clearness and directness. From the record the 
first question we attempted to debate was 'Was the Mexican 
War justifiable?' and the minutes gravely state that 'after a 
good deal of arguing, the jury brought in its decision for the 
negative.' 

"It is wonderful, too, with what splendid courage these un- 



24 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

trained boys tackled subjects that have puzzled the best m- 
tellects of the country ; and it is remarkable with what good 
sense and justice they decided them. In nearly every instance 
these boys of from 12 to 15 years of age, living in a small town 
in eastern Ohio, placed themselves squarely upon the side of 
questions that since then have been maintained by the best 
minds and consciences of the country. For instance, on the 
questions, 'Should flogging be abolished in the Navy?' 'Shall 
Canada be annexed to the United States ? ' and ' Will the conquest 
of New Mexico and Upper California result in more good than evil? ' 
the society said ' Yes. ' On the then comparatively new question of 
' Should women be allowed to vote ? ' the boys also said ' Yes. ' On 
the question, ' Have the Negroes more cause for complaint against 
the Whites than the Indians ? ' the Polydelphians even at that 
early day decided wisely in the affirmative ; and your friend and 
toAMisman, Mark Hanna, took the side of the black man and 
won his cause. On the question, 'Should the United States 
take any part in the Hungarian struggle for liberty?' the 
bo3's stood by our traditional policy, notwithstanding the temp- 
tation to be led off by spread eagle oratory. With scarcely an 
exception the boys placed themselves on the side of justice, 
humanity, good morals and good government, and that speaks 
pretty well, it seems to me, for the atmosphere and influences 
which surrounded these boj's." 

Although one of the younger members, Mark Hanna was active 
and prominent in the Polydelphian Society. In his "Threnody " 
on the Senator, Dr. Henry C. INIcCook reproduces a copy of the 
minutes for one of the meetings at which Mark acted as sec- 
retary. On this occasion the portentous subject was discussed, 
"Which docs the most good to a republican government. 
Virtue or Intelligence ? " The secretary states that the question 
was decided in favor of the "negitive"; but whether the 
"negitive" is equivalent to Virtue or Intelligence the scribe 
fails to record. Mark was one of the jury. His handwriting 
at that time (he was just thirteen) was awkward and unformed, 
his spelling was far from impeccable, and his power of compo- 
sition probably inferior to that of an average well-trained boy 
of the same age to-day. But his handwriting shows the gen- 
eral characteristics of his later penmanship. 




Mark Hanna as a Boy 



BOYSOOD 25 

As was natural in a community just emerging from the rough- 
ness of the frontier, the games of the New Lisbon boys some- 
times took on a semblance of war, and the warring factions 
took their names and recruited their forces from different 
parts of the town. The nature and circumstances of these 
combats have been told in so lively a manner by Dr. Henry C. 
McCook, that I shall merely transcribe his account. 

"The inherent tendency of men to divide into parties, fac- 
tions, sects, and to contend with and for the same, often with- 
out the least apparent reasonableness, was well shown among 
our village boys. The town was divided into two great sec- 
tions, known in the graphic rather than elegant diction of boy- 
hood as Sheep Hill and Frog Pond. Between the two was 
a narrow belt called Mid-town or Middle-town, whose bounda- 
ries and subjects were determined partly by location and partly 
by natural and social selection. The Hanna boys, Mark and 
Melville, belonged to this section, and there the writer had his 
citizenship. For the most part the down-town boys went with 
the Frog-ponders, and the up-town boys with the Sheep- 
hillers. But there were not hard and fast lines, and the Mid- 
dle-towners had recruits from both sections, determined by 
personal preference, special friendships and boyish fancy. ' 

"The rivalries between these parties grew into feuds, and these 
were at one time so intense that individual fights and boy 
riots occurred, in which, as a rule, Mid-town and Frog Pond 
were allies. I remember one battle in which the parties met by 
challenge in a field and grove north of the Hanna place. The 
three clans marched to the rendezvous in companies, and after 
some preliminary skirmishing it was proposed to settle the con- 
troversy not by arbitration, but by the method of ancient 
chivalry, a fight between the captains of two of the factions. 
The Middle-town captain promptly accepted for himself and 
the Frog-ponders, and joined in fisticuff combat with the Sheep 
Hill captain, a stout and plucky lad called Loot Smith, two 
years older than he. Luther got the better of his opponent, and 
had him down, pummelling him badly, when the impatient parti- 
sans of the worsted Mid-towner broke bounds, and with a shout 
rushed into the fistic ring, rescued their fallen chief, and a general 
battle began over and around the two leaders. In this 7nelee 



26 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

one of our side — he was a Frog-ponder — who carried a real 
sword, an ancestral relic of some war, badly hacked the arm of 
a young Sheep-hiller." 

On another occasion the hostilities assumed such a serious 
form that a crowd of citizens, including the mothers of the 
combatants, gathered on the street ; but in spite of weeping and 
imploring the boys were too excited to abandon their rough 
war game. It took John McCook, the father of Henry, a 
stalwart man, six-feet-two in height, to end this particular bat- 
tle ; and even he might have failed without the assistance of a 
"red rawhide, mighty as the sword of Gideon." Thereafter 
the easy-going parents of New Lisbon decided to put an end 
to these puerile combats. Some witnesses assert that Mark 
Hanna was for a while captain of the "Sheep Hill" crowd, 
and that the "Mid-to^Ti" gang mentioned by Mr. McCook was 
also called "Dutch McCook's" crowd — "Dutch McCook" be- 
ing no other than Henry McCook himself. His crowd, while an 
independent command, usually fought with the Frog-ponders. 

Boys whose mimic battles could cause such consternation, 
to their parents came of fighting blood ; and indeed in no 
part .of the country was a more manl}^, vigorous and sturdy 
lot of people gathered together than in this particular part 
of Ohio. The community subsequently proved its mettle in 
both peace and war. One family in particular of Scotch- 
Irish Presbyterians, which was allied to the Hanna family by 
marriage, bore an extraordinary record in the war. Every- 
body has heard of the fighting JMcCooks, but everybody 
does not know they came from New Lisbon. George McCook 
and Mary, his wife, two of the early settlers of New Lisbon, 
had three sons. The first of these sons, Dr. George McCook, 
was the father of one son and seven daughters, two of whom 
married sons of Benjamin Hanna. It was this particular Mc- 
Cook who made the famous retort to a heckler, when he was 
urging his fellow-townsmen to enlist at the outbreak of the war. 
He was asked by an auditor, "Why don't j'ou go to the War ?" 
"Young man," Dr. McCook loudly answered, "if this war lasts 
six months, there will be more McCooks in the army than 
there are Indians in Hell." 

The boys who played and fought with Mark Hanna have al- 



BOYHOOD 27 

most as good a civil as a military record. There have been 
among them "two territorial governors, a secretary of the 
United States Senate, who had also been a representative 
in Congress, several clergymen of note, college professors, 
authors, and editors and many physicians, lawyers and suc- 
cessful business men." The majority of them were picked 
men, — picked, that is, by the happy accident of birth and 
blood, a sort of a natural aristocracy. 

Mark Hanna did more than hold his own among his vigorous 
playmates. He was one of their leaders — although not any 
more of a leader than were a dozen other boys. All accounts 
agree as to his disposition and behavior. He was active, will- 
ing, sociable, generous, friendly, mischievous, high-spirited 
and aggressive. He did not shirk any task which could be 
properly laid upon him, and he eagerly sought all sorts of games, 
amusements and contests of skill and strength. He learned 
his lessons, but he was not studious. He did his chores, but 
during their performance he was always planning some other 
and more amusing occupation. In short, he was thoroughly 
a boy — wise not beyond his years, but according to his years. 

His behavior as a boy was not, however, entirely a matter of 
the natural and wholesome inconsequentiality of youth. His 
nature was not cast in any special mold. It was not biassed 
in favor of any single expression. He passed easily and freely 
from one occupation to another, and did not linger long over 
any particular task. What gave singleness and wholesome- 
ness to his personality as a boy and later as a man Was not the 
possession of any special faculty or interest, but an all-round 
adaptability and humanity. From the beginning his great 
gift was a gift for good-fellowship. According to the unani- 
mous testimony of those who knew him as a boy he was expan- 
sive, good-natured and sympathetic — claiming friendship and 
fidelity and returning all that he received with abundant in- 
terest. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE PASSING OF NEW LISBON 

Benjamin Hanna and his sons were so prosperous in New 
Lisbon that had the town itself continued to prosper, most of 
the family, including probably Mark Hanna, would have re- 
mained there indefinitely. But New Lisbon suffered one of those 
set-backs to which our rapidly changing economic conditions 
subject many American towns and cities, and from which it 
never fully recovered. Inasmuch as this set-back was chiefly 
due to the failure of an enterprise which involved the business 
and the capital of the Hanna firm and resulted in the dispersal 
of the family, its causes, incidents and consequences must be 
described in some detail. 

The great need of the pioneer communities was cheap and 
adequate means of transportation. In its absence they were 
confined to local markets. They could do little with their 
corn except feed it to their hogs, and not very much with their 
hogs except eat them. Without transportation the very fer- 
tility of their lands and their own energy and hard work merely 
increased the local congestion of agricultural products. With 
transportation their farms doubled in value, and they could 
sell their superabundance of commodities for a relative abun- 
dance of cash. The consequence was that the pioneers hankered 
after improved means of transport very much as their forbears 
had hankered after salvation. 

Early in the nineteenth century the cheapest and most efficient 
means of transport was by water. Of course road builders 
were active ; but in the West the distances were too great to 
permit of the economical transportation of freight in wagons, 
and the country was too sparsely settled to support really good 
roads. The markets they wanted to reach were hundreds of 
miles away. Waterways were the thing ; and the invention of 

28 



THE PASSING OF NEW LISBON 29 

the steamboat increased suddenly and enormously the commer- 
cial value of navigable streams. Ohio was bounded on the 
south by one of the greatest navigable rivers in the country; 
on the north by one of a string of navigable lakes ; and it was cut 
up by a system of smaller watercourses which could be used for 
scows and fiatboats. Those parts of the state which enjoyed 
immediate access to such means of transport profited enor- 
mously. The other parts of the state languished. Cincinnati 
was the commercial metropolis. In 1840 it possessed almost 
seven times as many inhabitants as Cleveland. 

The only way to make up for the lack of natural navigable 
waterways was to build canals ; and after some years of hesita- 
tion Ohio took to building canals in earnest. Between the 
years 1825 and 1842, when the system of state canals was com- 
pleted, there were constructed in Ohio some 658 miles of canals 
at a total cost of nearly $15,000,000; and of these the most 
important was the Ohio Canal, which ran from Portsmouth 
on the Ohio River across the state to Cleveland at the mouth 
of the Cuyahoga on Lake Erie. "The effect of these improve- 
ments," says the historian of Ohio,^ "upon the growth and 
prosperity of the state can hardly be exaggerated. They 
opened to her farmers and merchants the markets of the Ohio, 
the Lakes and New York. They enhanced the value of the 
lands and of the products. They not only united a long segre- 
gated people, but made them prosperous." 

New Lisbon, however, was not properly situated to obtain 
any benefit from the system of state canals. It was separated 
from the Ohio River on the east by a dozen miles of rough 
country, and from the Ohio Canal on the west by several times 
that distance. Its inhabitants realized, as soon as the canal 
building began, that it would lose its standing as the busiest 
trading centre in the interior of eastern Ohio, unless it could 
obtain thoroughly good water communication with the local and 
remoter markets. As early as Jan. 11,1 826, the General Assembly 
authorized the incorporation of a company to construct the 
Sandy and Beaver Canal, which was to run from a point on 
the Ohio River through New Lisbon to a point on the Ohio 
Canal in Tuscawaras County. In this way the products of 

»" Ohio," by Rufus King, p. 350. 



30 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

New Lisbon and its neighborhood could be cheaply transported 
both to Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, and to Cleveland and Buffalo ; 
and New Lisbon would not only hold its own, but become a 
populous thriving city. 

Evidently, however, there were difficulties connected with 
the raising of capital for such a purely local enterprise. Prob- 
ably it did not look as good to outlanders as it did to the 
people of New Lisbon. As an air line the distance between 
the terminal ports of the Sandy and Beaver Canal was 
some forty miles, but this stretch was increased to sixty by 
the necessity of following the watercourses and dodging hills. 
The engineering difficulties were serious. For eight years 
after the incorporation of the company the project languished, 
and it was not until the end of 1834 that ground was actually 
broken. In the meantime the Ohio Canal had been practically 
finished, and a large part of the state was entering upon a 
period of unprecedented prosperity. Wheat went up from 
twenty-five cents to a dollar a bushel, and corn and oats almost 
in proportion. Even potatoes, which previously had been too 
cheap to have a price, brought forty cents a bushel. 

It was with high hopes, consequently, that on the 24th of 
November, 1834, New Lisbon celebrated the beginning of the 
great work. It was essentially a local enterprise. Some help 
had been obtained in Philadelphia, where the merchants of New 
Lisbon had wealthy connections; but most of the money was 
subscribed by business men of the town and the other small 
places along the line of the canal. Benjamin Hanna was 
president of the company. Leonard Hanna was a director. 
The whole family invested liberally in its stock. They realized 
that the future of New Lisbon depended upon the success of the 
undertaking. 

Even after ground was broken, however, progress was far 
from being uninterrupted. Work had to be suspended during 
the panic of 1837. Reorganization was necessary ; and to facili- 
tate it Benjamin Hanna turned over half of his stock in the old 
corporation to the new one. After a delay of some years work 
was resumed, and finally in 1846 the canal was actually finished. 
On October 26 the first boat made the voyage from the Ohio 
River to New Lisbon ; and the jubilation of the citizens of that 



THE PASSING OF NEW LISBON 31 

town was not apparently diminished by the fact that the 
boat stuck in the mud and had to be hauled to its dock, not 
only by horse and oxen, but by the willing arms of a large 
number of enthusiastic citizens. The event was properly cele- 
brated in a spacious warehouse, which Benjamin Hanna 
had built on the margin of the canal, and which was filled 
with immense stores of grain, wool and produce for shipment 
to the Ohio. 

The canal was a failure almost from the start. The section 
between New Lisbon and the Ohio River was operated with some 
success for a while, and large shipments of wool and pork 
were profitably made to Pittsburgh. But the rest of the canal 
was a frank fizzle. It was too difficult a problem for the local 
engineers. West of New Lisbon two tunnels had to be cut 
through the hills, one of which was three-quarters of a mile long. 
The number of locks made the cost of maintenance impossibly 
high, and scarcity of water rendered it necessary to dam sev- 
eral creeks and rivers and to build two large reservoirs. The 
work was hastily and badly done. The banks were always 
caving in, and the dams breaking. Water was frequently 
lacking. It is said that only one boat ever made the complete 
passage, and that boat was forced through by the contractors, 
so as to qualify for certain payments under their contract. 

The effect of this failure upon the fortunes of New Lisbon and 
the Hanna family was disastrous. Not only was the country-side 
drained of its accumulated capital, but it was deprived of means 
of recovering from the loss. Two million dollars had been sunk 
in the ditch, of which, according to Kersey Hanna, his father 
and brothers had supplied no less than $200,000. All of this 
money was hopelessly lost. Even that section of the canal 
between New Lisbon and the Ohio was not operated for more 
than a few years. Its trade was killed by the competition 
of the incoming railroads — a form of transportation which 
the citizens of New Lisbon had resolutely and insistently 
diverted from their town. By 1852 the Fort Wayne and the 
Cleveland and the Pittsburgh roads were already being operated 
through Columbiana County, but at some distance from New 
Lisbon. The town was side-tracked. The canal of great hopes 
was abandoned. New Lisbon ceased to be the trading centre 



32 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

of the district. There was nothing for an ambitious man to do 
except to get out. 

When overtaken by this disaster Benjamin Hanna was too 
old a man to move and make another start. He died in 1853, 
and left his children an abundance of land but very little personal 
property. His sons were young enough to begin again. Joshua 
Hanna moved to Pittsburgh and became a banker. Leonard and 
Robert Hanna started off in the opposite direction for Cleveland, 
where, in company with a fellow-townsman, Hiram Garretson, 
they founded a grocery and commission business. They were 
followed or accompanied by the other brothers. In a few 
years all the Hanna family had deserted New Lisbon. 

Mark, then a lad of fifteen, accompanied his parents to Cleve- 
land, but after his removal he remained tied to New Lisbon 
by one of the strongest of bonds. He had asserted his indepen- 
dence and the maturity of his years by an engagement of 
marriage with a young lady named Mary Ann McLain. His 
suit was discouraged from the start by his own family ; but his 
parents were apparently either unable or unwilling absolutely 
to forbid it. Mark certainly regarded himself as regularly 
and definitely engaged. During many years he often revisited 
New Lisbon, in order to see his sweetheart, and presumably to 
play around with his former companions. A boy who was so 
much of a boy was bound to have a love-affair ; and in the case 
of a boy who was being treated by his parents as so much of a 
man, the love-affair naturally threatened serious responsi- 
bilities. 

It speaks well for his fidelity in his personal relations that 
this pseudo-engagement lasted for nine years. During that 
whole period he continued to go to New Lisbon whenever he 
could ; and whenever he came, he brought with him an armful 
of presents — including, so it is said, dresses. Evidently after 
living in Cleveland he was not satisfied with the fashions of 
New Lisbon or Mary's ability to live up to them. His ideas 
about the apparel and the behavior of women were presum- 
ably changing ; and his attachment to Mary, which dated 
probably almost from childhood, was being strained. He was 
always gay and sociable, and he always instinctively sought 
the society of people of the same temper and habit. Mary ap- 



i 



THE PASSING OF NEW LISBON 33 

parently was shy, awkward and not at all lively. The relation 
could not last. 

But the way the end was reached testifies both to the good 
judgment of Mark Hanna's mother and to Mark's own frank 
courage. Mary was invited to pay a visit to the Hanna home in 
Cleveland. She accepted and it proved to be her undoing. 
Mary felt uncomfortable and out of place in the brilliant society 
of such a metropolis as Cleveland. She either refused to bear 
Mark company in his engagements among his new friends, or 
if she did she made an indifferent showing. It is said that when 
Mary returned, she realized that she and Mark could never 
be married; and New Lisbon firmly believed that Samantha 
Hanna had arranged the visit, in order that both of the young 
couple might have their eyes opened. 

Whether the event was due to diplomacy or accident, the 
inevitable result soon followed. Mark made up his mind that 
an end must be made of it ; and when his decision was once 
reached, he did not shirk its unpleasant consequences. He 
went to New Lisbon and told Mary face to face that it was all 
over. The poor child took her sentence hard, but she is said 
to have admitted its justice. As for Mark, a boy could hardly 
have behaved better than he did in the matter of an early and 
mistaken attachment to a girl. He was faithful for many years ; 
he was both kind and generous ; he evidently tried hard to make 
a place for his boyish attachment in the midst of a new and 
different life; and when he failed, he got out of his false 
situation as manfully as he could. Evidently his parents 
respected his attachment, and instead of arousing his resent- 
ment by uncompromising opposition, they had enough con- 
fidence in his good sense to allow him to extricate himself. 
Even at the age of eighteen or nineteen he was evidently very 
much his own master, and had won the right to take care of 
himself. His self-assertion when a schoolboy against the ex- 
cessive authority of his teacher. Miss Converse, was bearing its 
natural fruits. 

None the less the incident did not leave a pleasant impression 
on Mark Hanna's mind. The visit during which he broke 
with Mary was his last appearance in New Lisbon in almost 
thirty years. He did not return until 1890, and since this next 



34 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

visit was a sort of memorial pilgrimage of a successful man of 
fifty-three to the haunts of his youth, some incidents connected 
with it may be mentioned here. Mr. Hanna was accompanied 
on the trip by his wife, his mother, his daughter Ruth, his sister 
Miss LiUian Hanna, now Mrs. S. Prentiss Baldwin, his sister 
Mrs. Henry S. Hubbell and her husband, Miss Helen Converse, 
his mother's sister, and Howard Melville Hanna. They came 
in a private car, and occupied pretty much the whole of the inn 
kept by an Enghshman named " Billy " Bradbury. They visited 
the old house on the hill, found that to their recollection the 
rooms had shrunk in size, and discovered a closet, in which 
Mark had been confined by his mother for some boyish mis- 
deed until his father returned and released him. While near 
the house they came upon an aged man who was holding his 
horse while it grazed upon the grass back of the old homestead. 
Thinking that he looked like the man who used to drive the 
stage between New Lisbon and Wellsville, Mark Hanna called 
to him and asked, "Do you remember me?" The man looked 
at him indifferently^ and replied, "No, I don't." Not to be 
discouraged, Mr. Hanna continued, pointing to his brother, 
"This is Melville and I am Mark Hanna." "You don't 
say so," the old man answered without the sUghtest trace of 
interest. "And how's business your way?" 

"Billy" Bradbury, the hotel-keeper, was something of a 
character, and he and Mr. Hanna evidently soon became great 
friends. "One day," says Mr. Bradbury, "Mr. Hanna was 
sitting in the office, and eight couples in single rigs drove up. 
They had come from Salem, ten miles away, to see the new rail- 
way bridge. Three of- the young fellows put their horses in the 
barn ; the other five were not so particular and contented 
themselves with any post they could find vacant in the street. 
Presently the whole eight couples walked into the hotel, and 
sat dowTi upstairs in the parlor ; but when supper was read}', 
only those who had their horses in the barn came clown to eat. 
'Say, landlord,' one of them asked, 'do you know why those 
fellows and their girls aren't eating? Because they have not 
got the price.' Mr. Hanna heard what was said, laughed and 
said to me: 'Billy, go upstairs, and bring them all down to 
supper. Bring the boys and the girls, and if the boys won't 



THE PASSING OF NEW LISBON 35 

come, bring the girls, and feed their horses. I'll pay the bill." 
So he did, and no one was the wiser. When the bill was pre- 
sented after a visit of three days it came to $80. The landlord 
received a check for SlOO and was told to keep the change. 
Naturally he swears by Mark Hanna. 



CHAPTER V 

EARLY YEARS IN CLEVELAND 

In April, 1852, Leonard Hanna and his brother Robert left 
New Lisbon and started on their new business career in Cleveland. 
T'^ciy were accompanied by Hiram Garretson, a fellow-towns- 
man of Quaker parentage, and about whom we know at least . 
that he was a man of impressive personal appearance. At 
one time he represented his country at an international exposi- 
tion in Vienna. Before the formal opening he joined a number 
of minor European potentates in a special inspection of the 
exposition. In describing this royal procession the Londoji 
Times is reported to have said that the most regal-looking man 
in the group was the American Commissioner Hiram — which 
was not so bad for a Cleveland grocer. He and his partners 
apparently had little difficulty in starting a business, which soon 
became sufficiently profitable to support them and their families. 
The family of Leonard Hanna had not accompanied him to 
Cleveland in the spring of 1852. They joined him in the fall 
of the same year, after the business had been well established, 
and moved into a substantial brick house on Prospect Street, j 
between Granger and Cheshire streets. 1 

The fact that Mark considered himself engaged to be married 
was not allowed to interfere with the more immediately necessary 
business of going to school. His education was continued 
during some four years and a half. One of the public schools 
which he attended was situated on Brownell Street, then called , 
Clinton Street. Later he studied at the Central High School, 
which stood on the site now occupied by the Citizens' Savings 
and Trust Co. John D. and William Rockefeller were among 
his schoolmates, the former being about Mark's own age. 
Finally his education was finished by an attendance of a few 
months at the Western Reserve College. Nothing of any im- 
portance' is remembered about his life during these years — 

36 



EARLY YEARS IN CLEVELAND 37 

except the reason for the early termination of his career at 
college. 

An interesting account of this incident is supplied by Mr. 
Hanna himself. In a speech delivered on the seventy-fifth anni- 
versary of the founding of the college, June 13, 1901, he tells 
the story so well that his account deserves to be repeated in 
full. He said on that occasion, in the easy colloquial manner 
characteristic of his public speaking: "I am neither a student 
nor a scholar, and it is with diffidence I address this audience. 
My connection with the Western Reserve College reaches back 
as far as 1857. I had finished my education at the public 
schools, and I had a choice of going to work or attempting a 
college course. My mother persuaded me to try the latter. 
Western Reserve College at 'Hudson' was near at hand, and 
there I went. I entered what was called the scientific class, 
in which a kind-hearted professor made things easy for me. 
There were five members of the class when I entered it. Later 
the numbers dwindled to three, and when I left there was not 
any. 

"My environment was largely responsible for my going. At 
my boarding house I fell in with a number of jolly sophomores, 
and they persuaded me to help them in getting out a burlesque 
program of the Junior oratoricals. In the division of labor it 
fell to my lot to distribute these mock programs. I well remem- 
ber when the iron hand of Professor Young fell on my shoulder. 
'Young man,' he said, 'what are you doing?' 'I am dis- 
tributing literature and education,' I replied, * at the expense of 
the Junior class.' Well, it was near the end of the term, any- 
way, and I went home. I told my mother I thought that I 
would go to work, and that I was sure the faculty would be glad 
of it. A little while after I met President Hitchcock on Superior 
Street. I was in jumper and overalls, for I was working. He 
asked me what I was doing, and I told him 'working.' He 
didn't say anything, but his eyes and manner said very elo- 
quently that he thought I had struck the right level. And the 
moral of that story is, boys, 'Don't be ashamed of overalls.' " 

The penalty of expulsion or even suspension looks unneces- 
sarily severe for such a harmless joke. In order to account 
for it, the reader must understand the high importance of the 



38 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

Junior "oratoricals" among the intellectual festivities of a year 
of the Western Reserve College. It was the great feature of 
the college term — more important even than the commence- 
ment exercises. Every member of the Junior class was expected 
to ''oratorical"; and at the same time the collegiate honors, 
which were to be distributed among the class a year later, were 
indicated and practically announced. 

Mr. Geo. H. Ford, classmate of Mark Hanna's, tells the story 
of the episode in the following words : " The 'affair' occurred 
April, 1859.^ The Junior class of that year was unusually large 
and above the average in talent. In it were several Cleve- 
landers. I remember W. W. Andrews, son of Judge Sherlock 
J. Andrews, as one of them, and John F. and Henry V. Hitch- 
cock, sons of the president of the college. The faculty was 
justly proud of this class, but certain of its individual members 
had put on 'airs,' and the lower classmen resented it, Hanna 
among the rest. The coming 'exhibition' was looked forward 
to with great local interest. The program was prepared secretly, 
and to prevent accidents was sent to Cleveland to be printed. 
Hanna saw an opportunity of removing a little of their conceit, 
so he went to Cleveland, got on good terms with some one in 
the printing office, secured a proof of the program, and forwarded 
it to his fellow-conspirators in Hudson. A racy burlesque or 
sham program was prepared and returned to him, which he had 
printed in elegant style and sent back. I think, although 
I am not sure, he also managed to suppress, or get possession of 
the genuine programs, and to forward a bundle of the shams 
by express to the class on the morning of the exhibition, too late 
for a remedy. The shams were thoroughly distributed through- 
out the audience in the crowded chapel by boys enlisted by his 
co-conspirators." 

Mr. Ford does not believe that Mark was expelled. He was 
merely reprimanded severely by the faculty, indefinitely 
suspended and his return made conditional on a promise of 
good behavior. He adds that Mark Hanna was easily a captain 
among the boys of his age in college — frank, fearless and ener- 

' This is a mistake. Mr. Hanna could scarcely have been 21 years old 
when he entered college. He entered in 1857. The joke was played in 

1858. 




Mark Hanna as a Lad of Eighteen 



EARLY YEARS IN CLEVELAND 39 

getic, full of fun and always ready to play harmless jokes on his 
companions. Once when a local fire company was making a 
blundering attempt to extinguish a fire near the college campus, 
he quickly collected thirty or forty boys, charged on the firemen, 
took the extinguisher away from them, seized the nozzle of the 
hose with his own hands, chmbed to the roof of the house, and 
remained there until the fire was put out. 

Obviously Mark Hanna's suspension was the occasion of his 
quitting college rather than the cause. After he had finished 
with the high school, his own preference was for an immediate 
plunge into business, and in going to college he was merely 
making a temporary concession to the wishes of his mother. 
He could make the concession out of respect for his mother, but 
at the first check his own will prevailed. His parents had 
allowed him a good deal of independence, and he was accustomed 
to act for himself. All his deeper instincts urged him to begin 
his career in business. The fact that he considered himself 
engaged to be married would alone have been sufficient to make 
the idea of a long college course irksome. Life itself was 
beckoning to him. Why potter over books, when there were 
real things to do ? 

From his own point of view he made the right decision. He 
would have gained little from a college training. He was never 
interested in books. He never learned much out of books. 
Even at high school his progress must have been slow, or 
he would have been ready for college before he was twenty 
years old. By disposition and training he was the true product 
of a pioneer society, in which an active life without any 
artificial preliminary discipHne is the efficient fife, and in which 
the action adopted is determined by the economic environment. 
Inasmuch as he was destined to be a business man, the sooner 
hp began, the better. Experience was his one possible source of 
real education, and his experience could become edifying only 
as the result of actual experiment. While he had little ability 
to learn at second hand from books, he had or came to have a 
gift for learning from his own successes and failures, and so for 
adapting himself to the needs of his own career. 

The business carried on by Harma, Garretson & Co., into 
which Mark Hanna entered in the spring of 1858, afforded an 



40 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

excellent schooling for an energetic and intelligent young man. 
Nominally they were only wholesale grocers, but a wholesale 
grocery in Cleveland fifty years ago inevitably tended to 
become a general forwarding and commission business. Cleve- 
land was at that time just beginning to reap the advan- 
tage of its situation on Lake Erie at the most convenient 
point for the control of the shipping and the trade, other 
than grain, of the Great Lakes. During the fifties both 
Wisconsin and Minnesota were beginning to be settled, and 
because of the Lakes many of the needs of the pioneer 
population of these states could be supplied most economically 
by water in the boats of the merchants of a conveniently 
situated city like Cleveland. Hanna, Garretson & Co. were 
apparently one of the first firms to anticipate the possibilities 
of this trade. They began early to extend their business into 
the Lake Superior region. In order to make their deliveries, 
they established a line of steamboats which carried passengers 
as well as freight, and for which return cargoes had to be found. 
And their return cargoes even at this early date were prophetic 
of the product, for which the upper Lake region was later to 
become conspicuous. The pioneers of Minnesota wanted to 
sell, not grain or hogs, but pig-copper, iron ore and salt fish. 
Hanna, Garretson & Co. used in this part of their business the 
Manhattan, one of the first steamboats regularly operated on the 
Lakes, and later the City of Superior and the Northern Lights. 

Hiram Garretson spent much of his time in New Orleans, 
buying the sugar and molasses, which was sold to their cus- 
tomers in Ohio and along the Lakes, and which was still shipped 
to Cleveland by way of the Ohio River and canal. Leonard 
and Robert Hanna remained in Cleveland and took care of the 
selling end of the business. When Mark Hanna left college, 
his business experience began, as he himself says, in jumpers 
and overalls. He started as a general rustabout on the docks, 
and as a clerk in the warehouse on Mervin Street. His work was 
the same as that of any other young man in and about the store. 

He was soon, however, given a more responsible job. He did 
not remain in the warehouse much longer than enough to obtain 
a speaking acquaintance with that aspect of the business. His 
first outside assignment was that of purser on one of the vessels 



EARLY YEARS IN CLEVELAND 41 

for a season, whereby he obtained some knowledge of the Lake 
Superior country and the conditions of trade and transporta- 
tion on the Great Lakes. Still later he went out as a salesman. 
The firm sold groceries in many towns in northern Ohio. It 
was not at that time customary to solicit business, but Mark 
was occasionally commissioned to start out and find customers. 
His brother, Leonard C. Hanna, believes him to have been one 
of the first commercial travellers in the United States — which is 
a distinction of a kind. He was no more afraid of the sample- 
case than he was of the overalls. All accounts agree that he 
was from the beginning an exceedingly successful salesman. 

Although business interested the young Mark Hanna much 
more than books, he did not in the beginning apply himself to 
business with anything like the exclusive devotion which charac- 
terized the early career of his fellow-townsman and grocer, Mr. 
John D. Rockefeller. He was still wise, not beyond his years, 
but according to his years. He was not quite ready to settle 
down to serious work. He was more than anything else a 
young man who wanted to enjoy himself after the manner of 
other young men. He was by disposition gay, expansive and 
sociable. He eagerly sought and shared everything which 
Cleveland had to offer by way of sport and amusement. He 
joined the Ydrad Boat Club, of which he became captain. The 
club owned a long racing boat, and it used to row exciting 
races with its rival, the Ivanhoe Boat Club. He never cared 
particularly for horse-racing ; but all his companions liked it, and 
he would join them because he did not want to be left behind. 
Although an enthusiastic card-player, he rather avoided poker. 
He was a conspicuous figure at dances and parties of all kinds, 
and he particularly enjoyed certain excursions to Rocky River 
for dinner, which he himself used to get up among his young 
friends of both sexes. He spent a great deal of time and money 
on these sports and diversions. In fact, he is said usually to have 
paid more than his share of the expenses, and certain members 
of his family assuredly thought that he was also spending more 
than a proper share of his time. He does not appear to have 
had any peculiarly intimate friendships as a young man, but 
he knew everybody, enjoyed general popularity and was one of 
the leaders among the young people of Cleveland. 



42 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

Apparently his amusements interfered with his business 
career — at least in the opinion of some of his elders. His 
brother, H. M. Hanna, states that Uncle Robert used to complain 
about the number of Mark's social engagements, and of the 
consequent expense. But this was merely the unsympathetic 
criticism of a young man by an elder of different disposition. 
Mark was temporarily intoxicated with the wine of youth. 
If he had refused the cup, he might have made and saved 
more money, but he certainly would have been less of a man. 
The love of sport, combat and amusement was in his blood, 
and in giving free expression to them in his youth, he was 
behaving, as he always did, in a natural and a wholesome way. 
Be it added that his gayety was innocent in intention and 
harmless in its results. Both of his brothers testify that his 
youth was exemplary. As a young man he never even 
touched beer and whiskey, and he sowed no wild oats. 

Soon, however, vicissitudes in the life both of his family and 
his country diminished his amusements and increased his 
responsibilities. Not long after Mark went to work his father's 
health began to fail. At about the same time Ohio and the 
North were in a ferment, first over a threat of civil war and 
finally by its outbreak. Suddenly Mark Hanna found him- 
self confronted by the work and duties of a man. 

The death of Leonard Hanna was the result of the accident 
which had been one cause of the abandonment of his professional 
career. The fall which he had received while mounting his horse 
had injured his spine. At the time the injury was supposed to be 
slight, and the only resulting inconvenience was a tendency to 
headaches. Later, however, these headaches became more 
frequent and more painful. They were localized at the very 
top of his spine, and he could obtain relief only by the applica- 
tion of very hot cloths to the back of his neck for hours at a 
time. As the headaches increased in number and severity, an 
operation was tried, and some of the nerves of the neck were cut. 
Thereafter the pains vanished, but his general health steadily 
declined. He died finally from the degeneration of the tissues 
of a part of the brain. 

The illness which resulted in the death of Dr. Leonard 
Hanna on Dec. 15, 1862, had disqualified him for business 
throughout the two preceding years. During that interval 



EARLY YEARS IN CLEVELAND 43 

Mark Hanna gradually stepped into his father's place. He was 
the eldest son, and the one on whom the responsibility naturally 
fell. He represented the interests of his mother and brothers 
in the business, and practically became a partner. In fact, even 
before his father's death the firm was reorganized, and Mark 
Hanna entered it. A difference of opinion had arisen between 
Robert Hanna and Hiram Garretson about the conduct of the 
business. Garretson wanted to add to the trade of the firm a 
liquor department, because it was in liquor that the largest 
profits were to be made. Robert and Leonard Hanna refused 
on account of their temperance convictions. Late in 1862, as 
a result of this disagreement, Hiram Garretson withdrew from 
the firm ; and on December 1 of that year the following notice 
was published in the Cleveland Herald: 

Cleveland Herald, Dec. 1, 1862. 

R. Hanna, L. Hanna, S. H. Baird, M. A. Hanna, 

Robert Hanna & Co. 

(Successors to Hanna, Garretson & Co.), 

Wholesale Grocers, Forwarding and 

Commission Merchants, 

and Dealers in 

Produce, Fish, Salt, etc., etc. 

Central Exchange, 

Nos. 169 and 171 River St., and Dock, 

Cleveland, Ohio. 

Agents for 

Cleveland, Detroit and Lake Superior 

Line of Steamers. 

Notice. M. B. Clark and John D. Rockefeller, late of Clark, 
Gardner & Co., will continue the Produce Commission business 
under style and firm of Clark & Rockefeller, at warehouse re- 
cently occupied by Clark, Gardner & Co., Nos. 39, 41, 43 & 
45 River Street. 

This notice was published two weeks before the death of 
Dr. Leonard Hanna, so that Mark Hanna was soon the only 
representative of his immediate family in the partnership. 
Somewhat later his brother, Howard Melville, bought out the 
interest of S. H. Baird. Dr. Hanna bequeathed little to his 



44 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

family except his share of the business, and that, of course, went 
to his widow for the support of the home and the younger chil- 
dren. The boys received practically nothing from their father's 
estate. 

The situation of the family before and after his brother's 
death determined Mark Hanna's behavior in respect to en- 
listing for the war. As a courageous, patriotic and combative 
young man, whose friends were going to the front, Mark would 
have inevitably enlisted, but he was prevented by his duty to 
his family. Some one had to remain in Cleveland, so as to man- 
age his mother's interest in the grocery business. The choice lay 
between Mark and his younger brother, Howard Melville. They 
talked it over, and agreed that Mark's longer experience in the 
business designated him for service at home. His brother en- 
listed in the navy and served with honor and distinction. 

At a later date Mark Hanna did serve for a short time, and 
he himself has given a brief account of the incident. Speaking 
at the camp-fire of the Grand Army of the Republic on the night 
of Sept. 12, 1901 (while President McKinley's life still hung 
in the balance), he said : "This is my first visit to a camp-fire. 
As you all know, I have been one of you but a short while. 
To the question why I did not exercise my right to be enrolled, 
I will say that I never supposed I was entitled to stand with 
the men who were veterans of four years' terrible war. I am 
but a four months' man. In 1861 I might have enlisted, but 
circumstances prevented me. My father was on a sick bed. 
I did the best I could. I sent a substitute. ..Four years later 
I had the honor to be drafted! \Ve did Bave a brush with Gen- 
eral Early, but that was all. For that reason I did not think I 
was entitled to become one of your comrades." 

This account of his service is rather an under- than an over- 
statement of his participation in the war. He had joined a 
company of militia known as the Perry Light Infantry, which 
later became a company in the 29th regiment of the Ohio Na- 
tional Guard. In the spring of 1864, when the government was 
straining every resource to deal to the Confederacy a crushing 
blow, the 29th regiment of the National Guard together wdth a 
company of farmers from Dover in Cuyahoga County and a 
company of students from Oberlin College were mustered into the 



EARLY YEARS IN CLEVELAND 45 

Federal service as the 150th regiment of the Ohio Volunteer In- 
fantry. The date of their entry into the service was May 5, and 
one week later it took train from Cleveland for Washington. 

The Perry Light Infantry, composed mostly of young Cleve- 
land business men, became Company C in the new volunteer 
regiment. It had been commanded by Capt. W. H. Hayward, 
who was elected colonel of the new organization. This left 
Company C without a captain. The first lieutenant of the 
Light Infantry was made captain of Company C ; and when 
a further election was held to fill the position of first lieutenant, 
E. B. Thomas, who was serving as first sergeant, received a ma- 
jority of the votes, although Mark Hanna, who had been second 
lieutenant of the Light Infantry, had a prior claim on the posi- 
tion. After a consultation E. B. Thomas refused to muster in 
as first lieutenant and was never commissioned as such. Mark 
Hanna Served through the hundred days as first lieutenant, 
although he was commissioned only as second lieutenant. 

The regiment was sent to Washington as a substitute for the 
troops which had been withdrawn from the defences of the 
city by General Grant in order to help him in the campaign 
in the Wilderness. Its members were marched out of the city 
and assigned to garrison duty in forts Lincoln, Thayer, 
Saratoga, Slocum, Bunker Hill, Slemmer, Totten and 
Stevens. The "brush with Early" mentioned in Mr. Hanna's 
speech occurred on July 10 and 11. General Early was 
threatening Washington, and all available troops were being 
rushed to the fortifications for its defence. But the attack 
never developed into anything dangerous ; and such as it was, 
it did not fall upon that part of the Federal line at which Lieu- 
tenant Hanna's company was stationed. It was concentrated 
on Fort Stevens, which was separated from Fort Bunker Hill, 
where Company C was quartered, by Forts Slemmer, Totten 
and Slocum. Company C was not under fire. 

Mark Hanna himself was not even with his regiment on the 
day when the Confederates made their feint at the defences of 
Washington. He had been assigned to return to Cleveland 
with the dead body of a comrade, and the "brush with Early " 
occurred during the time occupied by his return journey. In 
a letter written from Baltimore, where he was detained on the 



46 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

journey, he expressed lively chagrin at being absent from the 
only military "excitement" in which his regiment was involved. 

Although the regiment saw no service worth the name, it was 
well drilled, and in every way thoroughly prepared for the field. 
The emergency which had called it out soon passed, and on 
August 13 it was returned safely to Cleveland after a disa- 
greeable journey in a train of cattle cars. On August 23 it was 
mustered out, having served for one hundred and ten days. 
Jay C. Morse and George W. Chapin, later to become brothers- 
in-law of Mark Hanna, were sergeants in Company C, and Ed- 
ward O. Wolcott, subsequently Senator of the United States 
from Colorado, and George K. Nash, subsequently governor of 
Ohio, were privates in other companies. The historian of the 
regiment, 'Major' Gleason, refers to Lieutenant Hanna as a 
"jolly, auburn-haired, freckle-faced youth," while his lieu- 
tenant-colonel, John N. Frazee, supplies the following de- 
scription: "Lieutenant Hanna must have been six feet or over 
in height, weighing from 160 to 180 pounds ; complexion fair, 
full-faced, with side whiskers ; full-chested, square-shouldered ; 
in fact a very manly man and thoroughly conscientious in the 
discharge of his duties." 

At the time of his service in the fortifications of Washington, 
Mark Hanna was not so much interested in the defence of his 
country as he might have been. Or rather he was interested in 
something else very much more. He was at that moment head 
over heels in love, and just before starting for the front his love- 
affair had developed into a recognized engagement. To leave 
Cleveland at such a crisis was exasperating to a young man who 
had been obliged to overcome obstacles before he was accepted 
as suitor for the lady's hand ; and during the whole of his en- 
forced absence he was more preoccupied with the end of his 
service than with its duties and opportunities. As he was to 
be married soon after his return, he counted the days which he 
had still to wait, and was not happy until the orders were given 
for the journey back to Cleveland. His wedding did take place 
a few weeks after he was mustered out of the service ; and 
we must now turn to the series of incidents which culminated 
in his marriage, and the no less important series of incidents 
which were its immediate consequences. 



CHAPTER VI 

MARRIAGE AND ITS RESULTS 

The lady to whom Mark Hanna was married in September, 
1864, was Miss C. Augusta Rhodes. They had met at a bazaar 
in the spring of 1862, just after Miss Rhodes had returned from 
a finishing school in New York City. On that occasion Mark 
had won the favor both of mother and daughter by helping them 
out of an embarrassing situation. An acquaintance followed, 
and the two young people promptly fell in love with each other. 
Mark was an eligible suitor, and there was no good reason why 
an engagement should not have immediately followed. But 
when Miss Rhodes's father was approached, he met the suitor 
with a peremptory and probably an explosive negative. 

Mrs. Hanna gives two reasons to account for the opposition. 
Her father, Mr. Daniel P. Rhodes, a coal and iron merchant and 
one of Cleveland's most successful business men, was a vigorous 
and self-willed man. Behind his opposition was apparently 
the instinctive repugnance which certain fathers have to the 
marriage of their children ; but of course he had what appeared 
to be a better reason at the end of his tongue. He did not want 
his daughter to marry Mark Hanna because he did not like the 
young man's politics — which is not such a bad reason at a 
time when differences of political opinion were deluging the 
country with blood. Daniel P. Rhodes was a strong Democrat, 
and unlike many of his partisan associates in the Middle West, 
he was more of a Democrat than he was a unionist. Stephen 
A. Douglas was distantly related to him, and he had taken an 
intense interest in Douglas's political career. The defeat of his 
favorite in 1860 so embittered him that he could not forgive the 
Republicans, who brought it about. He used to say to the 
young suitor, "I like you very well, Mark, but you are a 
damned screecher for freedom." 

The order was issued that the two young people should be 

47 



48 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

kept apart ; but it was an onler easier to issue than to execute. 
Mark was captain of the Ydrad Boat Chib, and both conspicu- 
ous and ubiquitous in Clevehind society. The order to keep 
Miss Rhodes away from her lover was equivalent to an order 
for her to stay at home. She was forbidden to attend the dances 
given during the winter by the Boat Club, an enforced isolation 
which increased her imhappiness. Mark does not appeiir to 
have been absolutely forbidden the house, but his visits were 
discouraged, and he saw Miss Rhodes, if at all, only under 
surveillance. 

For a long time the young suitor appeared to make no head- 
way. Daniel Rhodes was really in earnest, and he was not the 
man to yield except under compulsion. In a country where 
the exercise of parental authority is sanctioned by public opin- 
ion the opposition might have proved fatal, but in the land of 
freedom a way is usually found to bend a stubborn parent to 
the will of his otTspring. ]Mark Hanna was as obstinate a man 
as Daniel Rhodes, and he was armed with the swords both of 
Passion and of Righteousness. He persisted. ]Miss Rhodes 
was very unhappy. She pleaded and wept. Her health suf- 
fered. There was no telling what might happen. Daniel 
Rhodes had no peace at home or abroad. Finally he yielded. 
Before ^lark started for Washington the engagement was rec- 
ognized, and on Sept. 27, 1SG4, he wa^ n'larried to Miss 
Rhodes in St. John's Church — the groom being a little over 
twenty-seven years old and the bride twenty-one. The day 
of the ceremony Daniel Rhodes said to the triumphant groom, 
"It's all over now. ^Nlark. but a month ago I would like to have 
seen you at the bottom of Lake Erie." 

Daniel Rhodes may have consoled himself for the loss of a 
daughter by the idea that he had acquired a son. After the 
marriage he did his best to keep the young couple near him and 
under his thumb. Wlien they returned from their wedding 
trip ^lark Hanna and his wife lived for awhile in the Rhodes 
n\ausion on Franklin Avenue, and more than a year elapsed 
before they set up an establishment of their own. Early in 
ISGO they moved into a small house on Prospect Street, in spite 
of the opposition of Mr. Rhodes ; but their move towards in- 
dependence was not a success. The young couple had one dif- 




Mark II anna in 1804 



MARRIAGE AND ITS RESULTS 49 

ficulty after another, and in the end they were forced to sub- 
mit to the will of the obstinate Mr. Rhodes. 

In December, 1866, their first child was born and was named 
Daniel Rhodes Hanna, after the dominant father-in-law. A few 
months later Mark Hanna was seized with an acute attack of . 
typhoid fever — the malady which was subsequently to cause 
his death. He was desperately sick, but being young and 
strong, he pulled through. While he was still struggling against 
the depressing after effects of his illness, he met with business 
reverses. Robert Hanna and Co. had built a new boat, the 
Lac la Belle, which is said to have been the best vessel on the 
Lakes. It appears that Mark Hanna had an individual in- 
terest in her as well as his share of the firm's interest. After 
only a short period of service she collided with another boat in 
the Detroit River, and went to the bottom — a total loss. 

Nor was this all. Soon after his marriage Mark Hanna had ^ 
started a petroleum refinery. It was a new industry. The 
buildings were small and the business uncertain. Insurance 
companies looked askance at the risk. According to his daugh- 
ter's account Daniel Rhodes was violently opposed to his son- 
in-law's enterprise, not merely because he did not like the pre- 
cariousness of the venture, but because he wanted Mark Hanna 
to join him in the coal and iron business. Every time he heard 
the fire bells he would say : "There ! I suppose Mark's damned 
oil refinery is burning down," His constant repetition of this 
remark finally became a family joke. But one day it did burn 
down, and at that time Mark Hanna, while he was up and 
about after his attack of typhoid, was still far from well. He did 
not get home until two o'clock in the morning. When he came in, 
he said : "Well, I have got to the bottom. The boat is sunk, 
the refinery is burnt and worse still, my health is gone. If I 
were well, I would not be discouraged. As it is, I don't know 
what will become of us." Early the next morning Daniel 
Rhodes turned up at the house on Prospect Street, walked in and 
greeted the happy pair with the admonition: "Now, I guess 
you two young fools will be good and come home," They 
meekly acquiesced, and that very day they returned to the 
Rhodes house on Franklin Avenue. The father-in-law stood by, 
while they packed up, and consoled the young man with the 



50 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

reiterated remark, "Your money is all gone, Mark, and I am 
damned glad of it." For the moment there was no fight left 
in Mark. It was arranged that Mr. and Mrs. Rliodes were to 
go abroad, Mr. and Mrs. Hanna were to keep house in Franklin 
Avenue, and at the same time make a home for Mrs. Hanna's 
brother, Robert R. Rhodes. 

The new domestic arrangement involved also a new start in 
business for Mark Hanna. Daniel Rhodes wanted to retire. 
The old firm of lihodes, Card & Co. was dissolved. Jonathan 
F. Card withdrew as well as Daniel Rhodes, and a wholly new 
firm, to be called Rhodes & Co., was to take their place. The 
members of this firm were George H. Warmington, M. A. Hanna 
and Robert R. Rhodes, the brother of Mrs. Hanna. Rhodes 
& Co. started business in April, 1867, and so began Mark 
Hanna's connection with the coal and iron industry, which was 
to last throughout his life. 

The organization of the copartnership of Rhodes & Co. 
involved the withdrawal of Mark Hanna from the firm of 
Robert Hanna & Co., but it is improbable that Mark had many 
regrets on that score. The Hanna firm had been strengthened 
after the war by the accession of Howard Melville, Mark's 
brother ; and apparently the younger men did not get on very 
well with their uncle. He is described as a large, heavy man with 
good business judgment, and an excellent salesman, but lacking 
in energy and enterprise. After his marriage Mark had begun 
to take business in earnest. He wanted to expand their trade 
rapidly, introduce a more vigorous campaign for the sale of 
stock, and improve their methods and machinery all along the 
line. His plans were continually being thwarted by his uncle, 
who, as the elder man, was naturally conservative. There were 
many disagreements. The partnership would probably not in 
any event have endured very long, and if Mark Hanna had 
continued to be a grocer, he would either have controlled the 
business or started a competitive firm. As it was, he withdrew 
at the time of the formation of Rhodes & Co., and later in the 
same year the business was wound up and the stock sold to a 
competitor. 

Although Mark Hanna probably felt little reluctance in 
terminating his partnership with his uncle, he had not been by 



\ 



X 



MARRIAGE AND ITS RESULTS 51 



any means eager to enter the firm which was to take over his 
father-in-law's business. Not only was the coal and iron trade 
an unfamiliar country to him, but he was loath to abandon his 
petroleum refinery. He believed that large profits were to be 
made in oil, and as the event proved, he was right. But in ad- 
dition to reasons connected with the nature of the businesses 
he abandoned and was asked to undertake, personal issues 
were involved. His father-in-law had opposed his marriage, 
and in the beginning had scoffed at his business ability. He 
would much have preferred to keep his independence and make 
good without his father-in-law's assistance. Had he not met 
with a series of reverses, he would in all probability have con- 
tinued to operate the oil refinery, with the result of profoundly 
modifying his subsequent business career. 

As it was, Mr. Rhodes seems to have offered his son-in-law 
very considerable inducements to enter the firm of Rhodes & 
Co. He had come to have much more respect for the young 
man's business ability, and Mark entered the firm under most 
advantageous conditions. The refinery, which was rebuilt, and 
in which Mark's mother had a substantial interest, was sold 
later in 1867 to his brother, Howard Melville. Mr. Hanna ran 
the business in partnership with his brother-in-law, Geo. W. 
Chapin, under the name of Hanna & Chapin. A couple of 
years later it was sold on advantageous terms to the Standard 
Oil Company. 

How his subsequent business career would have been modi- 
fied, in case he had become an ally of the Rockefellers, is mere 
speculation, but it is a kind of speculation too tempting to 
ignore. A man of Mr. Hanna's energy and business ability could 
hardly have joined the forces of the Standard Oil Company with- 
out becoming conspicuous in its management ; and every man 
prominently identified with that company was induced by the 
consequent opportunities of money-making and by the nature 
of the business to leave his native town and go to New York. 
Mark Hanna might well have done the same, and if so, his 
subsequent political career would have become impossible. He 
would have made more money, but he would have broken the 
local ties which enabled him to develop from a business man 
into a political leader. The Standard Oil Company proved to be 



52 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

the most generous paymaster in the business history of the United 
States, if not of the world, but it demanded of its beneficiaries 
the rupture of local associations and the sacrifice of extraneous 
ambitions. 

All unconsciously Mark Hanna escaped the danger, if danger 
it was, of becoming too rich, and on April 1, 1867, he made a 
new start on what proved to be his ultimate business career. 
At that time he was, according to the statement of his brother- 
in-law and temporary partner, Mr. Robert R. Rhodes, worth 
some thousands of dollars less than nothing. He had gained 
little from the first nine years of his business life except experi- 
ence. He had ignored the rule laid down by Mr. John D. Rocke- 
feller as constituting the sure road to business success. He had 
not pinched and saved, and devoted himself exclusively to his 
work. He was human enough to want a good time while he 
was young, and he had not scrupled to take it. In the mean- 
while he had been seeking business success, as a young man 
naturally would, by the road of new enterprises, such as the 
oil refinery and the Lac la Belle. The subsequent history of the 
oil and the lake shipping industries prove that in making these 
ventures, his business judgment was sound. But his luck was 
not as good as his judgment, and his business strategy provided 
no method of retreat. When his boat and his refinery were 
consumed by the elements, which they were intended to exploit, 
he had no reserve capital with which to repair his losses. The 
Rockefeller rule would have insured him against such a calamity, 
but fortunately he had saved something better than an insur- 
ance fund. He had saved his youth, and he kept his youth with 
him. 

In 1867, however, he was thirty years old. If he was still 
to be wise according to his years, he no longer had the same ex- 
cuse for vagrancy. He was happily married. His children were 
being born. His father-in-law believed in him and had given 
him an interest in a well-established and prosperous business. 
He felt the need of making good. For the first time his energies 
were absorbed by his career. He began to put himself into his 
work. Notwithstanding the fact that one of his partners was 
his elder in years and his superior in experience and that the 
other was the son of the founder of the business, Mark Hanna 



MARRIAGE AND ITS RESULTS 53 

rapidly became the leading member of the firm. The will to 
succeed in any enterprise which he undertook and to dominate 
any group of men with whom he was associated lay deep in his 
disposition. It now began to receive a persistent and effective 
expression. During the next twenty-sey^n years he was more 
than anything else a man of business, tie labored unceasingly 
and efficiently to build up Rhodes & Co., until under the name 
of M. A. Hanna & Co. it became a highly individual business 
organization and one of the two or three largest firms in the 
coal and iron trade of the Ohio lake district. 



CHAPTER VII 

BUSINESS LIFE IN CLEVELAND 

In Mr. Robert R. Rhodes's statement describing his business 
relations with Mark Hanna and the latter's business charac- 
teristics, Mr. Rhodes has explained in the following words the 
success of Rhodes & Co.: "Mark Hanna was a shrewd man. 
Much of the credit for the prosperity of Rhodes & Co. must at- 
tach to his individual efforts. But my idea about the success 
of the firm, aside from Mr. Hanna's personal contribution to it, 
is that we took over the business at an opportune time. Eco- 
nomic conditions offered us unusual opportunities for growth. 
We started at the right moment." It is essential, consequently, 
to an understanding of Mark Hanna's business career that some 
account be given of the economic conditions and opportunities, 
which confronted Cleveland business men in the decade or two 
immediately succeeding the war. 

When Dr. Leonard Hanna moved to Cleveland in 1852, it 
was a small but thriving city, containing a little over 20,000 
inhabitants. Its rapid growth had been due to its situation 
on Lake Erie at the northern terminus of the Ohio Canal. 
Produce of all kinds, originating not merely in Ohio, but along 
the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, were shipped by river and canal 
to Cleveland, which became an important distributing and 
collecting agency for the district reached by the Great Lakes. 
Agricultural staples were sent to the terminus of the Erie Canal 
at Buffalo — either for Eastern consumption or for export. The 
pioneer settlements in the Northwest were supplied with the 
few necessaries they could afford to purchase, and their prod- 
ucts were carried to markets farther east. Its business, con- 
sequently, was commercial rather than industrial, and depended 
for its growth chiefly upon the increasing importance of the 
Great Lakes in the American system of transportation. 

During the fifties the volume of lake commerce increased by 
leaps and bounds, chiefly because of the rapid settlement of the 

54 



BUSINESS LIFE IN CLEVELAND 55 

region in the Northwest tributary to the Great Lakes. The 
population of Cleveland more than doubled during the decade, 
and its industry and commerce not only throve, but became 
much more diversified. Nevertheless, even in 1860 its popula- 
tion was less than one-fourth that of Cincinnati, and the con- 
ditions which account for its present place in the national com- 
mercial system were barely beginning to be conspicuous. The 
great trade routes still lay along the navigable rivers like the 
Ohio and Mississippi, and the combination of lake and rail- 
road transportation, which was to constitute the backbone of 
American domestic commerce, had not yet been formed. 

The Civil War accelerated the predestined change in com- 
mercial routes. Navigation of the Mississippi, except for mili- 
tary purposes, suddenly ceased. The bond between the South 
and the agricultural states of the Middle and Northwest was 
cut. The tide of commerce began running east and west. The 
railroads and the Lakes took the place of the rivers and the canals. 
Chicago as the distributing and collecting centre for the rapidly 
growing states tributary to the head waters of the Mississippi 
and Missouri leaped into its position as the leading commercial 
and industrial city of its own region. Its enormous increase 
in population and business was due chiefly to the benefit which 
it obtained from the agricultural development of the West and 
the Northwest — a benefit dependent more upon its railroad 
connections than its situation on Lake Michigan, but partly 
on both. 

Cleveland had little to gain, except indirectly, from the increase 
in the grain trade and the new course it was taking ; and it had 
less to gain than had Chicago from the growing importance of 
railroad transportation. Its peculiar place in American do- 
mestic commerce depended upon its central and convenient 
location on the Lakes. It needed the railroads chiefly as 
supplementary to water routes. Its great opportunity came 
when the industrial expansion of the Middle West created a de- 
mand for crude manufacturing materials, adapted to trans- 
portation in bulk. Its merchants assembled the basic materials 
necessary to the industrial life of the Middle West. They 
brought coal from the mines in Ohio and western Pennsylvania, 
and sold it in the different markets on or near the Lakes. They 



56 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

transported the iron ore and pig copper which was already being 
produced in considerable quantities in the upper Lake region 
to the furnaces and factories south and southeast of Lake Erie. 
They built the vessels needed for this constantly increasing 
commerce. Ship building gradually became their most im- 
portant single industry, but this complicated branch of manu- 
facturing brought many subordinate industries with it. Cleve- 
land has always been remarkable for the diversity of its 
manufacturing interests and the wholesome balance of its eco- 
nomic life. 

When Mark Hanna entered the firm of Rhodes & Co. in 
1867, the commercial and industrial revolution roughly 
sketched above was still in its infancy. The Middle West, 
and particularly the state of Ohio, had passed out of its period 
of pioneer agriculture, but it was just beginning its period of in- 
dustrial pioneering. Of course many experiments had already 
been made, and many local industries had already been founded. 
But these industries had depended upon means of transporta- 
tion which were now being superseded, and consequently the 
conditions of industrial success in the Middle West were being 
turned upside down. A piece of industrial and commercial 
patch-work had to be converted to an organic system, not only 
well articulated within, but properly adapted to the national 
economic system. It was a world of industry and commerce 
in the making, and offered extraordinary opportunities to an 
enterprising, aggressive, energetic, quick-witted, flexible and 
indomitable man. 

The business which Rhodes & Co. took over from Rhodes, 
Card & Co. was well established, but its development was only 
embryonic. The bulk of its business consisted in the mining 
and selling of coal, — an industry with which Daniel P. Rhodes 
had been associated from the start. As early as 1845 the Brier- 
hill mine, near Youngstown, Ohio, had been opened up by Mr. 
Rhodes and David Tod. Their output was some fifty tons of 
bituminous coal a week, which was gradually increased and 
which was brought to Cleveland by canal until 1856, when the 
completion of the Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad gave the 
trade a great impetus. Soon after, the opening of the Cleveland 
and Pittsburg Railroad made the coal-fields of Columbiana 




Mark Hanna about 1871 



BUSINESS LIFE IN CLEVELAND 57 

County accessible; and in 1860 the great Massillon district, 
with which Mr. Hanna's firm became closely identified, was 
opened for production. By 1867 the railroad, steamboat and 
manufacturing industries in and about Cleveland were already 
justifying the shipment of some 600,000 or 700,000 tons of coal 
a year to that market. 

While the mining and sale of their own coal constituted a 
considerable part of the initial business of Rhodes & Co. in 
1867, it by no means constituted the whole of it. The firm also 
owned a furnace and some iron properties at Canal Dover in 
the Tuscawaras district; and it sold its own pig-iron and its 
own ore. Furthermore it carried on a considerable commission 
business in all these products, and it was on the whole more in- 
terested in the selling than it was in the operating aspect of its 
several-sided business. Under the management of Mr. Hanna 
and his new partners it did not change in that respect. Indeed 
little by little it became more than ever a commission business. 
Whenever either the firm or its individual members became 
interested in the production of coal, of iron ore or of pig-iron 
it was chiefly for the purpose of securing material which could 
be sold by Rhodes & Co. 

The kind of business described above was admirably adapted 
to the peculiar business abilities of Mark Hanna. He was not 
the man to work patiently and persistently in building up stone 
by stone the structure of a particular industry. He liked di- 
versity of occupation and work, constant movement and the 
excitement of new undertakings. The business of Rhodes & 
Co. developed, consequently, not along any one line, but along 
many lines. It became fundamentally a selling agency for a 
variety of products ; and as a selling agency it could transact 
a much larger business on a certain amount of capital than it 
could if it were handling only the output of its iron furnaces 
or mines. 

At the same time every possible precaution was taken to 
provide against the dangers to which a mere commission busi- 
ness was exposed — the danger of losing control of the product 
sold. In order to become certain of being able to handle as 
agent large quantities of coal, iron ore and pig-iron, Rhodes & 
Co., either as a firm or by the action of its individual members, 



„/ 



58 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

extended widely its interests in mines, furnaces and later in 
means of transportation. It did not always own a mine or a 
furnace outright, but an interest in many such enterprises was 
purchased — always with the understanding that the product 
should be sold through Rhodes & Co. This method of creating 
business for Rhodes & Co. as a selling agency became more and 
more an essential part of the policy of the firm. 

During the days of Robert Hanna & Co., Mark Hanna had, 
as we have seen, been much interested in the Lake Superior 
ore country. After the dissolution of the firm his brother, 
Howard Melville Hanna, continued to conduct a forwarding 
and commission business in the products and supplies of that 
district. It was natural, consequently, for Mark Hanna to 
extend the business of Rhodes & Co. into such a familiar region. 
He added to the connections of the firm a number of iron mines 
in the Northwest; and little by little he obtained control of 
the sale of most of the charcoal iron produced in the district. 
This innovation made an essential change in the scope and 
the balance of the firm's business. Its interests, instead of being 
confined almost exclusively to Ohio, were established in a strong 
position on the great highway of American domestic commerce. 

The extension into the Lake Superior district was immedi- 
ately followed by another development in the firm's business, 
which also naturally followed from Mark Hanna's early expe- 
rience. The connection built up with the Lake Superior dis- 
trict soon involved the firm in the transportation as well as the 
sale of iron ore and coal. Rhodes & Co., or its partners in- 
dividually, acquired interests in every aspect of the handling 
and the transport of the products, which they sold on commis- 
sion. 

No other extension of the business of the firm did so much as 
did its early interest in lake transportation to fortify its position 
and enable it to reap the full advantage of its opportunities. 
The place of Cleveland in the economic system of the Middle 
^est was, as I have said, primarily commercial. It was ex- 
/cellently situated for the handling, the collection and the dis- 
u-^tribution of the basic materials of industrial production, but its 
situation placed it at a disadvantage in shipping finished prod- 
ucts to the markets either in the East or the West. Its manu- 



BUSINESS LIFE IN CLEVELAND . 59 

factures have, indeed, always been diversified and thrifty; 
and the Cleveland Rolling Mills Company was early one of 
the most progressive and prosperous manufacturers of finished 
steel products in the United States. But as a producer of 
steel the Cleveland district has never competed except in 
a small way with Chicago or the Pittsburgh district. Con- 
sequently in obtaining an interest so early in the sale, the trans- 
port and the handling of the basic materials necessary to the 
iron and steel industries, Rhodes & Co. established themselves 
under Mark Hanna's direction near the heart of Cleveland's 
growth and prosperity. 

The extension of the business of Rhodes & Co. mentioned 
above was effected soon after Mark Hanna's entrance into the 
firm. Before 1870 a regular iron ore transport service was 
established, in which were interested, not only Rhodes & Co., 
but the three partners individually and Howard Melville 
Hanna. For many years Melville Hanna was associated with 
his brother in many ship-operating and ship-building enter- 
prises, although this association did not include the other branches 
of Mark Hanna's business. Melville Hanna was an expert in 
both the technical and the commercial aspects of lake trans- 
portation and his cooperation was invaluable. 

Another useful associate in his early venture in the trans- 
portation of iron ore was the Cleveland Iron Mining Company. 
This corporation was one of the largest shippers of ore in the Lake 
Superior district. A contract was made with the company for 
the transportation of its ore for three years, and on the strength 
of this contract four steamers and four tows were built and oper- 
ated. Each of the several partners of Rhodes & Co., except, 
perhaps, Mr. Warmington, also owned and operated vessels 
for his individual benefit. One ship, owned by Mark Hanna 
and his brother, was named Leonard Hanna after their father. 
Eventually the Cleveland Transportation Company was or- 
ganized to conduct this branch of the business, and later still 
the early association was dissolved and the Orient Transpor- 
tation Company was formed, which assumed ownership, not only 
of all the original fleet, but of a number of new vessels. 

In the meantime the other aspects of the business were not 
being neglected. Under modern conditions water transpor- 



60 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

tation is only to a very small extent independent of transpor- 
tation by rail. It was just as essential for a firm like Rhodes & 
Co. to have advantageous connections with railroads as it was 
to control mines and vessels, for almost all of the materials 
it produced, manufactured, sold on commission or carried by 
water was handled by a railroad at some point of its transfer 
from the mines or furnaces to the consumer. The Pennsylvania 
Railroad Company was inevitably the corporation with which 
Rhodes & Co. had most reason to be closely associated. It was 
the company which owns the roadway leading from the firm's 
mines to Lake Erie. It was the only company which at that 
time could convey the ore brought by boat from Lake Superior 
to the furnaces of western Pennsylvania. Close relations were 
consequently established with this railroad early in the seven- 
ties, and they have continued until the present day. The firms 
of Rhodes & Co.^ and M. A. Hanna & Co. have always been 
known as Pennsylvania Railroad shippers. Of course, their 
business was not exclusively transacted with that company, 
but it was their first choice. The firm in which Mr, Hanna 
was a partner has always stood for the Pennsylvania interest 
on the south shore of Lake Erie. Mark Hanna himself became 
a director both of the Cleveland and Pittsburg Railroad, 
(one of the Pennsylvania's leased lines) and later of the Pitts- 
burg, Fort Wayne and Chicago. 

His firm profited very much from this connection. It leased 
the docks of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company at Ashtabula 
on the south shore of Lake Erie about sixty miles east of Cleve- 
land, and much of the ore shipped from the Lake Superior dis- 

* The firm continued to conduct its business under the name of 
Rhodes & Co. until 1885, but in the meantime Mr. Hanna's interest 
in it was constantly being increased. In 1875 Leonard Colton Hanna, 
Mark's youngest brother, entered the firm ; and at about the same 
time it was joined by James Ford Rhodes, another son of Daniel P. 
Rhodes, and subsequently the historian of the United States from the 
Compromise of 1850. In the meantime Mr. Robert R. Rhodes and 
Mr. Warmington retired, and in 1885 Mr. James Ford Rhodes also 
withdrew. Thereafter the Rhodes interest was eliminated, and the 
firm name became M. A. Hanna & Co. Mr. A. C. Saunders was at 
one time admitted to partnership, and at a considerably later date, 
but during his father's life Mr. Daniel Rhodes Hanna entered the firm. 



BUSINESS LIFE IN CLEVELAND 61 

trict to western Pennsylvania was handled by these docks and 
carried to Pittsburgh by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. 
The docks were equipped with ore-handling machinery by 
Rhodes & Co., and they transacted a very large business. In 
accordance with its usual policy of participating in the owner- 
ship as well as in the handling of the products it sold, a furnace 
was bought in 1879 at Sharpsville, Pennsylvania. At a later date 
M. A. Hanna & Co. also leased and equipped the Pennsylvania 
docks both at Cleveland and at Erie. 

The vessels owned and operated by the Cleveland Trans- 
portation Company were, of course, built of wood, and their 
tonnage was comparatively small. Vessels carrying twelve or 
eighteen hundred tons were considered to be good-sized ships. 
It was Melville rather than Mark Hanna who first reached the 
conclusion that larger vessels should be built, and steel substi- 
tuted for wood. Before acting on the conclusion he investi- 
gated the matter for two years, and employed experts to help 
him in testing the practicability of steel vessels from every 
essential point of view. When he was wholly convinced, Melville 
and Mark Hanna and J. F. Pankhurst bought the Globe Ship 
Building Company, and the keel of the first steel vessel to be 
navigated on the Great Lakes was soon laid. Her name was the 
Cambria, and she carried twenty-six or twenty-seven hundred 
gross tons. The Corsica, Coronia and Coralia, which were 
slightly larger, and which together with the Cambria were 
furnished for the first time with triple expansion engines, soon 
followed. These vessels were specially equipped for the economi- 
cal transportation and handling of iron ore, and they were a 
success from the very start. They were, however, so much of a 
success that they immediately provoked extensive imitation and 
improvement. The Globe Company obtained orders for twelve 
steel vessels in one year, and the transportation methods on 
the Great Lakes were revolutionized. 

Thus a very complicated and diversified business was gradu- 
ally built up ; but diversified as it was, its several parts were 
carefully adjusted and tied together. Its core was the co- 
partnership of Rhodes & Co., and later of M. A. Hanna & Co., 
and the essential purpose of all the separate enterprises was to 
create an abundant business for the firm as commission mer- 



62 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

chants. To this end alliances were established covering every 
aspect of the production, the handling and transportation of 
the coal, iron ore and pig-iron. The firm itself owned coal 
mines in the several bituminous districts in Ohio. Its indi- 
vidual partners also owned mines. In other cases merely an 
interest had been purchased in mines operated independently. 
In still other cases the coal of wholly independent operators 
was bought outright and sold. Most of this coal was placed 
on the market in Cleveland, and a large part of it was carried 
up the Lakes in steamers owned in part by members of the 
firm as individuals. The same methods were repeated in the 
iron ore district. Iron mines were owned both by the firm, 
by its individual members and by outsiders to whom capital 
had been advanced. The firm profited from the sale of their 
ore, and frequently from its handling and transportation, while 
at the same time it transported and sold large quantities of 
ore for other producers. 

The volume and the diversity of the business was a great help 
to its economic and eSicient transaction. Vessels which carried 
iron ore down the Lakes could carry coal back. The alliance 
with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company was of great assist- 
ance to the selling end of the business. The large quantities 
of materials sold justified the development of one of the ablest 
sales-organizations in the country. The firm had unsurpassed 
opportunities of keeping in touch with every aspect of the coal 
and iron business and of making both its purchases and its 
sales to the best advantage. Finally it always consumed a 
certain part of the raw materials it produced or sold, and it 
possessed in this way a safety valve for its business. It could 
either sell the raw material or convert it according to the com- 
parative opportunities of profit. A large and increasing part 
of the business of the firm consisted of mining its own coal and 
ore, transporting them in its own boats, unloading them on 
docks which it leases and operates, and (sometimes) smelting the 
ore in its own furnaces. Pig-iron, however, was its most finished 
product. The firm never went into the manufacture of steel, 
although certain of its members entered the directorate of steel- 
producing companies — partly in order to secure business for 
the copartnership. 



BUSINESS LIFE IN CLEVELAND 63 

An organization of this kind is rare, if not unique, in the his- 
tory of American business. Essentially it consisted of a partner- 
ship, which constituted the nucleus of a widely ramified system 
of corporate and firm properties, individual properties, and per- \S 
sonal and corporate alliances. Throughout the territory em- 
braced by the operations of the firm, all the roads led back to the 
partnership itself, which gathered toll from the crossing of every 
bridge, the passage of every turnpike, and the safe arrival 
at every destination. Yet these tolls were cheerfully paid, 
because the firm always served its customers fairly and effi- 
ciently, and because its policy was never either grasping or 
disloyal. The organization has the appearance of being peri- 
lously complicated, of being dependent upon too many fluc- 
tuating conditions, and upon too many merely personal alli- 
ances. But as a matter of fact, it has stood excellently the test 
of long and hard wear. For over forty years, during which time 
the conditions of its business have been radically changed, the 
firm has succeeded, not merely in holding its own, but in using 
these very changes to make its own position stronger. 

Particularly during the last thirteen years conditions in 
the coal and iron industry have not been favorable to commis- 
sion merchants. The tendency has been to do away with the 
middleman, and to organize under one ownership every phase 
of the process of converting iron ore into finished steel products ; 
but in spite of this tendency the organization of the firm was 
such that it could be adapted to the new conditions. Its alliances 
were strengthened by increasing the range and amount of its 
ownership in the products it sold ; and its own business became 
to an even larger extent a matter of selling its own pig-iron 
rather than the basic materials thereof. To be sure, this de- 
velopment took place largely after M. A. Hanna had retired 
from active business ; but his successors were able to meet 
effectively the new situation as it developed, partly because Mr. 
Hanna had established the business on sound foundations and 
made it both a tough and a flexible instrument. 

The salient fact, consequently, about the organization de- 
veloped by Mr. Hanna was its peculiar personal character. ^ 
Although transacting a volume of business very much larger 
than that of many big corporations, and although it has formed 



64 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

many corporations for the purpose of owning particular branches 
of its business, it has remained essentially a copartnership. 
A corporate organization demands impersonality of methods 
and policy. It is most effective when its operations can be- 
come automatic and be reduced to rule. But the business of 
M. A. Hanna & Co. was the creation of sound and enter- 
prising individual management ; and it has continued to de- 
mand management of this kind. Mark Hanna made it per- 
sonal ; and personal it has remained. It was successful under 
his management, because of the excellence of his judgment, 
the soundness of his policy and the absolute personal confi- 
dence which he inspired among his associates. It has continued 
to be prosperous under his successors, because they were able 
to bring similar qualities to its direction. Although it is twenty- 
five years since Mark Hanna was actively connected with the 
business which bears his name, his personality still lives in it 
and determines the forms of its activity. 



CHAPTER VIII 

MISCELLANEOUS BUSINESS INTERESTS 

In the account given of the business which Mr. Hanna and 
his partners gradually built up, no attention has been paid to 
other contemporaneous business interests. This particular 
aspect of his life has a unity of its own and can best be treated 
independently both of his political career and his miscellane- 
ous business engagements. The coal and iron selling agency 
constituted, of course, the foundation of his business structure. 
Until 1894 it consumed most of his time and energy. Through- 
out his life it provided him with his sinews of war. It made 
him a wealthy man, and he needed the power which only wealth 
can give. But important as it was in his life, and clearly as 
the quality of the man was expressed in the contribution he 
made to the success of the firm, the actual sequence of events 
in his business career is for the most part irrelevant to the main 
current of his life. 

From 1867 until 1880 he appears to have devoted practically 
all his time to coal and iron. The first six of these years were 
consumed in making himself a master of the business and in 
broadening its basis. The next five years constituted a period 
of general trade depression, during which Mr. Hanna had to 
struggle in order to maintain the ground which had already 
been won. But late in the seventies business revived, and 
Rhodes & Co. began to reap the reward which a period of active 
trade brings to a well-established and well-managed business. 
Mr. Hanna found himself possessed of means, which enabled him 
to undertake a number of other enterprises of some importance. 
He had become, indeed, one of the most conspicuous and pros- 
perous of Cleveland business men, whose cooperation was usually 
expected in matters of local business importance. 

The first of these miscellaneous ventures was nothing less 
than a plunge into the newspaper business ; and as the incident 
p G5 



66 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

had a certain bearing on Mr. Hanna's subsequent political 
career, it must be told in some detail. His interest in the matter 
originated in an attempt made by certain friends and asso- 
ciates to give renewed life to an old, well-established, but de- 
cayed local journal. At one time the Cleveland Herald had been 
the most influential organ of the Republican party in northern 
Ohio, and the only prosperous newspaper in the city of Cleveland. 
But owing to the death of one of its owners and the bad manage- 
ment of the remaining partner, both its circulation and its pres- 
tige fell away. In the meantime the Cleveland Leader, which 
was edited and for the most part owned by Edwin Cowles, was 
gradually taking its place. Later the Herald was |30Ught by 
Richard C. Parsons and William Perry Fogg. Colonel Parsons, 
a former Congressional representative, a politician of consider- 
able influence, and a cultured and able man, became its editor ; 
and Mr. Fogg, a dealer in crockery, took charge of the busi- 
ness management. They put both additional capital and 
energy into the Herald and made it a good newspaper, but all to 
no purpose. They could not either shake the standing of the 
Leader or restore the Herald to its former position. The new 
owners could not stand the strain. Their losses threatened to 
ruin them, and they had to sell out. 

William Perry Fogg retired, and Colonel Parsons persuaded 
a number of prominent men in Cleveland to come to his as- 
sistance. The new owners of the paper were a syndicate con- 
sisting of J. H. Wade, who laid the foundation of the Western 
Union Telegraph system ; Henry Chisholm, the founder of the 
Cleveland Rolling Mill Company, the great local steel works; 
John D. Rockefeller and H. M. Flagler ; Amasa Stone, the father- 
in-law of John Hay ; S. T. Everett, Dan P. Eels, a banker, 
Elias Sims, one of the owners of the West Side Street Rail- 
way and Mark Hanna. An abler and more successful group of 
business men would have been hard to find in Cleveland or 
elsewhere, but they were failures as the publishers of a news- 
paper. The Leader continued to prosper and the Herald to 
lose money. Finally the weary millionnaires refused to pay any 
more assessments. Colonel Parsons retired for good, and the 
property passed into the control of Mr. Hanna and a few as- 
sociates, with the former as president of the company. The new 



MISCELLANEOUS BUSINESS INTERESTS 67 

management, which took control early in 1880, immediately 
made an ingenious and vigorous attempt to rehabilitate the 
property and at the same time to crush its competitor. Every 
editor and reporter employed by the Leader who was supposed 
to be contributing to its success, was taken over by the Herald 
on the theory that the man behind the gun rather than the 
captain of the ship won its battles. The new staff are said to 
have boasted that they would do for the Herald what they 
thought they had already done for the Leader. In the mean- 
time, certain former employees of the Herald went over to the 
Leader, — one of them being Mr, James B, Morrow, who subse- 
quently became the editor of that paper. 

Mr. Edwin Cowles, editor and owner of the Leader, bit- 
terly resented both the way in which the new management of 
the Herald began its attack and the boasts of his former 
staff. He was a journalist after the manner of Horace Greeley — 
a blind partisan, a bitter and abusive controversialist, but a 
man of ability and weight. He regarded the desertion of his 
former staff as base treachery, and he had no scruples about 
allowing his personal grievances to dominate the editorial 
policy of his paper. The Herald, and Mark Hanna as its 
financial backer, became the object of a copious stream of vi- 
tuperation and ridicule. 

Throughout the next five years, Mr. Cowles used every 
available opportunity of making the publishing business dis- 
agreeable for Mr. Hanna. The abuse was coarse and clumsy. 
The editorial staff of the Herald was referred to as "Mark 
Hanna and his gang," and his management of the paper was 
described as "the reign of Marcus Aurelius." Neither did Mr. 
Cowles confine himself to editorial assaults. Mr. Hanna was 
becoming conspicuous in local politics, and was interested in 
candidates for local offices. Wherever such an interest became 
manifest, Mr. Hanna's candidate could always count on the 
opposition of the Leader; and when Mr. Hanna tried to get 
himself elected delegate to the Republican Convention of 1884, 
Mr. Cowles became an opposing candidate and beat him at 
the primaries. To a man like Edwin Cowles every fight was 
a personal fight, and all methods were fair in war. 

To these attacks Mr. Hanna never replied in kind, and he 



68 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

was probably very much surprised at the hornet's nest which 
he had stirred up. Of course the Herald announced its 
contempt for the Leader with the pohteness characteristic 
of American journalism of that period; but its owner avoided 
anything like a personal squabble. The Herald was a side- 
issue with him. He never gave very much attention or time 
to its management, and even the brilliant bit of strategy with 
which he began the campaign indicated an intention of dis- 
posing of the enemy by a grand coup rather than by hard and 
patient personal work. The grand coup failed. Mr. Cowles 
was, according to the standard of the day, an able journalist ; 
and he was an angry man, fighting with his back to the wall for 
all that he had in the world. At that time there was room in 
Cleveland for only one prosperous Republican morning news- 
paper. Not unnaturally the survivor proved to be the Leader. 

In March, 1885, Mark Hanna decided to quit. His news- 
paper enterprise had cost him a good deal of money, and he had 
not even enjoyed a good time in the spending of it. The name 
of the Herald, its good-will and its subscription list were 
sold to the Leader for $80,000. Its plant and visible property 
found a purchaser in the Plain-Dealer. The Leader celebrated 
its victory in an editorial article, which described its defeated 
competitor as an able and a fair antagonist — a fact which 
no one could have suspected from a perusal of the Leader's 
pages a few weeks earlier. 

Thereafter the Leader ceased its personal attacks on Mr. 
Hanna ; but in the opinion of men who watched the whole 
affair, these attacks had something to do with the establish- 
ment of a false impression of Mr. Hanna's personality in the 
minds of many of his fellow-townsmen. In the succeeding years; 
he became more and more conspicuous in local business and 
politics, and the kind of attack which a Republican newspaper 
had begun was continued, although with less persistence, by 
Democrats. The Plain-Dealer referred to him, sometimes ob- 
scurely and sometimes overtly, as a "Boss" and as an aggres- 
sive and a greedy man. The Press, an afternoon newspaper, 
which was seeking to attract popular attention by assaults 
on conspicuous citizens, took for a while a corresponding line 
of comment. He was pictured as overbearing, grasping and as 



MISCELLANEOUS BUSINESS INTERESTS G9 

indifferent to the rights of others. An attempt was made to 
prejudice popular opinion against him by representing him as 
hostile to the business prosperity of Cleveland. The lease, 
assumed by M. A. Hanna & Co., of the docks of the Penn- 
sylvania Railroad Company, at Ashtabula was cited as a ne- 
farious attempt to divert commerce from Cleveland and to 
snatch the bread out of the mouths of its working-men. Such 
misrepresentations continued for many years and contributed 
to establish locally a distorted popular impression of Mr. Hanna 
long before he became a national political leader. 

Mark Hanna was as far as possible from being a callous 
man. His expansive and sociable disposition, and the strong ties 
which bound him to his own city and people, made him ex- 
tremely susceptible to the injustice of this personal misrep- 
resentation. But he had too much good sense to wince in 
public or to indulge in personal recriminations. He was a 
fighter by nature, and whenever he saw a good chance of reply- 
ing to a specific case of misrepresentation, he always took it, 
but for the most part he bore it with silence, if not with in- 
difference. 

In assuming the management of the Herald, Mark Hanna 
had no ulterior purpose. He did not attempt to make his un- 
profitable newspaper pay by using it to advance his other busi- 
ness interests. Mr. J. H. A. Bone, who was managing-editor 
of the Herald, when it was sold to the Leader, stated that 
Mr. Hanna never meddled with the editorial department and 
rarely came to the office. Street railway questions were more 
or less discussed in the City Council, and Mark Hanna was even 
then the practical owner of a street railway, but he never asked 
the Herald to take one side or the other. When Mr. Bone 
was in doubt about the attitude which the paper should assume 
in reference to some political matter of importance, he some- 
times consulted Mr. Hanna ; but he declares emphatically that 
his employer never made any attempt to convert the Herald 
into a personal organ or into the covert promoter of his own pri- 
vate interests. He was a Republican, and the Herald was a 
Republican newspaper. Beyond that he had no personal po- 
litical policy. 

Mr. Hanna's connection with the Cleveland Herald, inci- 



70 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WOEK 

dental as it was in his business life, constituted in a sense the be- 
ginning of his public career. It was the first evidence, that is, 
of his assumption of a certain importance in the public affairs 
of Cleveland. His personal force was making itself felt beyond 
the limits of his immediate business associations ; and the very 
misrepresentations which were coincident with the beginning 
of his public life were an indirect tribute to the salience of his 
personality. From the outset he took a strong line of his own 
and by his methods in pushing along this line he both aroused 
enmities and conquered friends. Particularly during his early 
career he did not attempt to conciliate opposition. He made 
straight for his goal, and if any one stood in his way, the obstacle 
was usually and often roughly shoved aside. 

The characteristic of making hard and straight for a goal 
could easily be confused with a domineering disposition. Such 
a confusion took place in Mr. Hanna's case and is responsible 
for the accusations of being a "Boss" which were levelled at 
him almost from the start. But the impulse to dominate and 
to succeed is very different from the impulse to domineer. He 
/ always wanted power. He always wanted to place himself 
at the head of his associates in the prosecution of any joint 
enterprise. He was sometimes intolerant of opposition, im- 
patient with meddlers and procrastinators, brusque in manner 
and explosive in speech. Men who later became his friends 
and allies were repulsed by their first superficial acquaintance 
with him. But he was never a domineering man. His leader- ■ 
ship was always founded on personal energy and efficiency, , 
and on his ability to make other people believe in him ; and as 
men knew better they believed in him and trusted him the more. 
His work and his methods were such that he was bound to) 
create enmities; but his enemies could not accuse him of in- 
justice any more than his friends could complain of lack of con- 
sideration. He always played fair, even if he did not always? 
play politely ; and when he sat in a game he usually won, and 
he usually occupied or came to occupy a seat at the head of the 
•liable. 

In 1884 Mark Hanna started another outside enterprise, 
which was destined to be more successful than his excur- 
sion into the field of publishing. He organized the Union 



MISCELLANEOUS BUSINESS INTERESTS 71 

National Bank, of which he became president, Sylvester T. 
Everett, vice-president, and Mr. E. H. Bourne, cashier. He 
remained its president until his death, and for a number of 
years he gave to it a great deal of personal attention. In fact 
he did more than any other one man to establish it and build 
up its "clientele." Mr. Bourne, who succeeded him in the 
presidency of the institution, testifies to the energy and in- 
genuity he showed in securing valuable accounts, in selecting 
proper assistants and in organizing the business. 

After the bank had been thoroughly established, and he had 
gained confidence in its organization and officers, he ceased to 
give much time to its affairs. Nevertheless he long retained 
an active participation in its management. Mr. Bourne states 
that he continually went to Mr. Hanna for advice and that he 
never withdrew disappointed either in his reception or in the 
kind of counsel he received. His behavior as a bank president 
is described by Mr. Bourne in the following words: "He was 
earnest and decided if he thought he was right, and would 
persist in his opinion. But if upon argument he was convinced 
he was wrong, he was always willing to change his opinion. 
However, you always had to convert him with facts. I 
never saw a man who was so determined to carry out anything 
he thought was right and who was so willing to change his posi- 
tion when he found he was wrong ; and he was just as firm and 
cordial after he changed as he was before. His judgment was 
usually reached very quickly, for he was an economizer of time 
and after that only unimpeachable facts could move him. He 
was one of the hardest workers I ever knew and was in- 
^ variably clear, frank, honest and fearless in his conduct and 
' conversation." 

In an article on Mark Hanna published in McClure's Maga- 
zine in November, 1900, Mr. William Allen White inserted the 
, following passage: "In the early eighties — apparently by way 
: of diversion or because Satan finds some evil work for idle hands 
to do — when the coal, iron ore, pig-iron, steel, shipping, 
railway, and theatrical business became a nerve-racking mo- 
nopoly, Hanna started a bank." The implication of this pas- 
sage is that the bank was started, chiefly because Mark Hanna 
had more energy than he had outlets for it ; and his energy 



72 MAKCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

happened to overflow into banking. It is true that his 
energy was inexhaustible, and that he started a bank and made 
it a success with an apparent ease that almost makes the job 
seem to be a diversion. But he had none the less a motive in 
starting the bank, — a motive which was not merely the in- 
stinctive expression of superabundant business energy. He 
wanted to help a friend — to found a business in which that 
friend would find a regular and a remunerative position. 

Among Mark Hanna's papers was discovered the following 
note scrawled on a letter-heading of the Union National Bank, 
dated June 9, 1884 — the day on which the bank started to 
do business. The scrawl is itself undated, but must have been 
written some time in the nineties. 

"Mark! — 

"In cleaning out my desk to-day I discovered this sheet 
and send (it to) you as a souvenir of past events. On the 9th 
of June, 1884, the struggle commenced. 

For What? 
To work as few men have ever worked and to accomplish what 
no other man in Cleveland could have accomplished in the time 
and 

For Whatf 
To supply a soft snap for an intriguing conspiring Yankee 
(codfish bred) who has yet to add his first account (save his own 
paltry one) to the business of the bank. The rewards of merit 
in this world are past finding, Mark, let's hope for better in the 
next ! 

(Signed) "Ves." 

In the early eighties Mr. Hanna not only published a news- 
paper and started a bank, but he bought a theatre ; and he came 
to buy it in a very characteristic way. He was walking along 
Euclid Avenue one day with some friends on his way to the 
Union Club for lunch, when one of his companions remarked 
that the Opera House was at that very moment being put up 
for sale by the sheriff. This theatre, which was at the time the 
largest and handsomest in Cleveland, had been built by Mr. 
John Ellsler, who was a citizen of Cleveland and an actor as 



MISCELLANEOUS BUSINESS INTERESTS 73 

well as a manager. The enterprise had failed, because the 
theatre was rather more expensive than the city of Cleveland 
was capable of supporting, and Mr. Ellsler was being sold up. 
Mr. Hanna and his friends strolled into the building in order 
to watch the proceedings. The bidding was under way. Some- 
body had made an offer of $40,000 for the property, and Mr. 
Hanna to his own surprise and that of his friends raised the 
bid a few hundred dollars. He was still more surprised, when a 
minute later he found himself the owner of the theatre. Ac- 
cording to his account he did not have the remotest idea, when 
he entered the building, of buying the property. 

The first manager placed in charge of the theatre was his 
cousin, L. G. Hanna, a son of Benjamin Hanna. For some 
time it continued to be unprofitable. Its owner did not always 
approve of the policy of his manager. One evening Mr. and 
Mrs, Hanna were driving by the building and saw a rough- 
looking crowd gathered about the entrance. Thinking the 
building was on fire, Mr. Hanna left his wife at the Union 
Club, hastened to the theatre and entered the box always 
reserved for himself. He found the theatre crowded and 
a wrestling match under way. The first round had just 
ended, and Mr. L. G. Hanna was on the stage, announcing that 
inasmuch as the performance was so successful, it would be 
repeated on the following week. But Mark Hanna did not 
like it. He had bought a theatre, not an arena. One account 
states that the irate owner stood up in his box and declared that 
no such performance would be repeated in the Opera House, 
but this version is denied by Mr. L. G. Hanna, who states that 
Mr. Hanna merely went behind the scenes and asked him to 
omit wrestling matches in the future from the list of attractions. 

Augustus F. Hartz, who succeeded Mr. L. G. Hanna as lessee, 
had already been the manager of one theatre in Cleveland, 
but it burned, and he returned to his earlier occupation of 
prestidigitator. While he was performing in Cincinnati he 
received a telegram from Mr. Hanna asking him to keep an 
appointment 'in Cleveland the next day. Fifteen minutes 
after their meeting the lease was signed. Mark Hanna did 
business without unnecessary delays. Under the new manage- 
ment the theatre became more successful; and Mr. Hartz 



74 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

continued to be its lessee from that time until Mr. Hanna's death 
— a period of twenty years. 

Mr. Hartz states that Mr. Hanna knew all about the theatre, 
every part of it, and was perfectly competent to have managed 
it himself. He was frequently consulted about the bookings, 
and his judgment was rarely at fault. He had a high standard 
as to the character of the entertainments presented, and wanted 
his theatre to be known as in every respect first class. There 
was reserved for his use a box which he usually occupied 
some time during the week. Mr. Hartz states that his taste 
in plays and players was good. 

He insisted that the Opera House should be well and thriftily 
managed, but he was kind and considerate to his tenant. At 
the end of more than one theatrical season Mr. Hartz went 
to him and owned up that he could not pay the whole rent. 
"All right," Mr. Hanna would say, "I can wait." ''But," 
he would ask, "have you paid every one else?" As long as he 
knew that he was being dealt with candidly, he was willing to 
help and to wait; but he always insisted upon the prompt 
settlement of every other obligation. In the long run the theatre 
proved to be a good investment, paying him a return of $8000 
on his investment of $40,000. 

Yet when he bought the theatre he obviously had not done so 
merely as an investment. He preferred to keep his money in 
his business, and he almost never bought real estate except for 
his own use. Once the theatre was his, he was too good a man 
of business not to want to make it pay, but the impulse which 
prompted his successful bid did not flow merely from a quick ap- 
prehension of the cheapness of the property. It seems to have 
been an instinctive by-product of a lively interest in the drama 
and in theatrical performers. Plays and particularly players, 
always exercised a strong fascination upon him. He liked their 
animation, their gayety, their good-fellowship, and the heighten- 
ing of personality which the practice of their profession bestows 
upon them. 

Throughout the whole of his life Mr. Hanna was intensely and 
inveterately social. His favorite recreation consisted in 
companionship with other people ; and even during his years of 
closest business preoccupation he rarely sat down to table 



MISCELLANEOUS BUSINESS INTERESTS 75 

without a certain number of guests. On Sundays and holidays 
he liked to have the house full. Moreover, he wanted to enter- 
tain, not merely his friends and business associates, but (as his 
mother did before him) prominent and interesting people who 
visited Cleveland ; and among the visitors to Cleveland, who 
were necessarily prominent and usually interesting, were, of 
course, the constant stream of performers at the local theatres. 
Mr. Hanna used to entertain many of them at his house, and 
in this way he became more or less intimately acquainted with 
most of the leading American actors of his own day. 

Among the actors whom he knew more or less intimately were 
Edwin Booth, Lawrence Barrett, John McCullough, Henry 
Irving, W. J. Florence, John T. Raymond, W. H. Crane and 
Joseph Jefferson. He met many of them at his own theatre. 
When he did not know them, he would go to their dressing-room 
to be introduced, and then take them to his home as his guests. 
Some of them he helped. His most intimate friend among the 
players was Lawrence Barrett, with whom he corresponded, and 
whose letters to Mr. Hanna are almost affectionate. The 
business man had helped the actor with a loan of $10,000 at a 
time when their acquaintance was still comparatively slight, 
and thereafter their association ripened into a warm friendship. 
Mr. Hanna became Mr. Barrett's business adviser and helped 
him both to make and keep money. Mr. Hartz states that 
the latter's first engagement at the Opera House promised to be a 
dreary failure. On Monday night the house was empty. So for 
Tuesday night Mr. Hanna bought all the seats in the theatre 
except the gallery, and distributed them among the "best" 
people in Cleveland. It cost him S1400, but thereafter (accord- 
ing to Mr. Hartz) Barrett's reputation was established in 
Cleveland and to a smaller extent in neighboring cities. 

Mr. Hanna's excursion into the ownership of a theatre was, 
consequently, the result of human rather than business motives. 
He did not do it to make money, although once involved he 
managed to make the investment profitable. But his theatre 
brought him into closer touch with a group of people whom he 
found interesting and diverting, and who must have added a 
grateful alteration to the somewhat monotonous social life of a 
Middle Western city. 



76 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

Mark Hanna's other and final miscellaneous business interest 
was a street railway company. His connection therewith began, 
when in 1875, after the death of his father-in-law, Mr. Daniel P. 
Rhodes, he took the latter's place as director of the Rocky River 
Railroad. This little steam road ran for five or six miles from the 
city westward to a point on the Lake, which was a favorite place 
of recreation for the young people of Cleveland. Its equip- 
ment consisted of three locomotives and twelve cars; and it 
successfully lost during the winter all the money it made during 
the summer. Its right of way was sold finally to the Nickel 
Plate Railroad ; and as a local transit agency it was in a sense 
succeeded by the West Side Street Railway Company . That com- 
pany had been incorporated in January, 1863, for the purpose of 
supplying the citizens of the West Side with a horse-car service, 
and in it Mr. Daniel P. Rhodes was largely interested. At his 
death this interest was inherited by his daughter and his sons. 
Its initial capital stock of $50,000 had increased by 1879 to only 
$80,000, which indicates that during these sixteen years its 
growth had not been rapid. Mrs. Hanna's interest in the road 
after her father's death consisted of five hundred shares. In 
1879 Mark Hanna was elected a director, having qualified by 
the purchase of one hundred shares. 

Three years later, in 1882, he purchased five hundred more 
shares, and in this way he and the heirs of Mr, Rhodes obtained 
control of the property. Up to that time Elias Sims had been 
president of the corporation. The management had been 
anything but enterprising or efl5cient. Its service was cheap 
and poor. Its passengers had the pleasure of riding in old cars 
which were no longer good enough to be used in New York, 
and these cars were drawn by horses which had been discarded 
as useless for any but a semi-public service. Mark Haima did 
not like such management. He named a price at which he 
would sell his own interest or purchase the interest of Mr. 
Sims. That the price was liberal is indicated by the fact that 
in twenty-four hours Mr. Hanna had entered into control. 

The West Side Street Railway Company owned , about 
fifteen miles of track, almost all of it on the west side of the 
Cuyahoga River. It ran cars on Detroit, Pearl, Lorain and 
Bridge streets, and thence over the new viaduct to the Public 



MISCELLANEOUS BUSINESS INTEKESTS 77 

Square. Its most important line was only two miles and a half 
in length. In order to become a profitable road, it needed to im- 
prove its service and extend the area of its business so that 
it could be more economically operated. As soon as he assumed 
control Mr. Hanna instructed the superintendent, Mr. Geo. G. 
Mulhern, to buy new cars and horses, and to put the road in 
thoroughly good condition. "You do the work," he said, "and 
I'll supply the money." Little by little the lines were extended 
wherever possible, and every effort was made to keep the service 
abreast of the growth of the city. 

Somewhat later a consolidation was effected with the Wood- 
land Avenue line on the east side of the river, and then with 
the road on Kinsman Street. This consolidation largely in- 
creased the size of the company and the area of its operations. 
Its name was changed to the Woodland Avenue and West Side 
Street Railway Company, its capital became $2,000,000, and 
it obtained a long continuous route running from one end 
of the city to the other. Mr. Hanna was president of the 
new company. The Woodland Avenue line, when he assumed 
control, was also run down and was in need of complete rehabili- 
tation. After a few years he converted it from a losing into a 
paying property. 

It was about this time (that is, in the late years of the 
eighties) that street railroads in a city of the size of Cleveland 
began to be really profitable. Their traffic increased faster 
than the growth of population, because as the city spread, the 
amount of travelling became proportionately larger. Coincident 
with the necessary increase in travelling came the introduction 
of the electric trolley, which at once enormously improved the 
service, diminished the percentage of operating cost and made 
the consolidation of connecting lines necessary in the interest 
both of the best service and the lowest operating cost. About 
1889 Mr. Hanna began the electrification of his street railways. 
A little later a further consolidation was effected with the Cleve- 
land City Cable Company, which owned tracks on Payne Avenue, 
Superior and St. Clair streets. This new company was known as 
the Cleveland City Railway Company, its capital was $8,000,000, 
afterwards increased to $9,000,000, and the whole system was, of 
course, operated by electric trolleys. Mr. Hanna continued as 



78 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

president, and did not retire until his company, popularly 
known as the *' Little Consolidated," was merged with the Cleve- 
land Electric Railway Company — the "Big Consolidated." 

Mark Hanna never owned a majority of the stock in any of 
the companies which succeeded to the old West Side Street Rail- 
way Company. His own interest and that of his immediate 
family amounted to about a million dollars in the stock of the 
"Little Consolidated." Nevertheless his control was complete. 
He did not interfere much in the details of operation, but he 
travelled on the cars a good deal and was constantly suggest- 
ing improvements in the service. On the whole, however, the 
operating superintendent was held responsible for the running 
of the road, while Mr. Hanna financed it, decided what im- 
provements were necessary, and when and how they should be 
made. The directors almost always followed his recommenda- 
tions ; and under his energetic but thrifty management the 
Cleveland City Railway came to have a high reputation for 
the efficiency of its service. 

As in the case of his other interests Mr. Hanna did not buy a 
street railway, because he had carefully calculated the probabil- 
ity of large future profits in that particular business. Indeed, 
in 1882 it required some imagination to anticipate that such a 
decrepit enterprise could ever be made remunerative. The 
opportunity for large profits in street railways resulted, it must 
be remembered, from the introduction of electrical power. He 
became a street railroad president as the accidental result of 
his wife's inherited interest in a property of that kind. Mr. 
Hanna saw that this interest would continue to be worth little 
under its existing management. Being a man accustomed to 
take decisive action, he made up his mind that the interest must 
either be sold or the business controlled. When the old manage- 
ment preferred to sell out, Mr. Hanna started in' to build up 
the property. 

He had another interest in the street railway besides the 
family interest. He lived at that time on Franklin Avenue on 
the West Side. One of the tracks of the company passed his 
door. He used the cars to take him to and from his office. 
His pride as a business man in being associated only with well- 
managed and successful enterprises was reenforced by local 



MISCELLANEOUS BUSINESS INTERESTS 79 

pride. He wanted it to be a creditable road because it served 
himself, his own neighbors and his own neighborhood. It 
always meant more to him than did an ordinary business 
interest. It became in fact his hobby. He used to call it his 
savings bank. 

He called it his savings bank because he fully understood that 
it performed a local public function, as does a savings bank, 
and because he put into it for many years a portion of his surplus 
income. The property was built up partly with his own money, 
and it could not have been made profitable except by means of 
liberal capital expenditures. The railroad and its equipment, 
which he bought from Elias Sims, was, as a piece of physical 
property, not much better than junk. The early stockholders 
had all lost money. Mr. Hanna knew that he had to make a good 
railroad before he could have a profitable railroad, and when he 
took control his object was to earn a profit by excellence of 
service. The public responsibility which he recognized as 
necessarily attached to the railroad was that of giving its 
patrons the best possible accommodations. 

That the railroad really did become profitable was due, 
not merely to good management, but to the growth of the city 
and to the substitution of electric for horse power. Mr, Hanna 
entered the street railway, as he did the coal and iron business, 
at the right time. The conditions which were to make it 
much more profitable than ever before were just coming into 
existence. The growing population of Cleveland was spreading 
out and was obliged to do an increasing amount of travelling in 
the course of a day's work. Mechanical improvements offered 
an opportunity of largely reducing the cost per passenger. A 
judicious system of consolidation and transfers could be used 
to stimulate traffic. Mr. Hanna took advantage of all these 
opportunities and managed in the end to make the railroad pay 
interest, not merely on the fresh capital he had obtained, but 
upon all the capital originally invested in the enterprise. Before 
the new conditions had come into existence, the most capable 
management could scarcely have accomplished such a result. 

Mr. Hanna's personal attitude both towards his own business 
ventures and later towards general economic questions was 
that of the industrial pioneer — the man who starts enterprises, 



80 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

takes whatever chance they involve and builds them up with 
his own brains and hands. A street railway was from his 
point of view much like any other business enterprise. The 
chief difference was that the number of its customers gave it a 
semi-public function; but its duty to the public was simply 
the duty of all economic agents — that of rendering efficient 
service. If it rendered efficient service, the public interest no less 
than its own special interest demanded (from his point of view) 
that it should obtain the full fruits of its good management. 
The public had no more claim on a share of the profits of a street 
railway than it had on a share in the profits of the Union Na- 
tional Bank; and if it attempted to extort such a share, the 
only result would be the discouragement of private enterprise, 
the refusal of capital to invest and the consequent diminution of 
improvement and deterioration of service. 

The industrial pioneer needs more than anything else a free 
hand. In our own country he has until recently usually enjoyed 
a free hand. Mr. Hanna enjoyed it everywhere except in his 
street railway business ; and being accustomed to it, he was im- 
patient when any unnecessary obstacles were placed in the way 
of his plans of improvement. His company ran its cars on many 
streets under grants from the municipal government. Attached 
to these grants were certain specific conditions. The franchises 
ran for a comparatively short period, because a general law 
in Ohio limited their term to twenty-five years. The prosperity 
of the company and the excellence of its service depended 
partly on its ability to secure other franchises, necessary to 
the normal development of the system, and partly upon a 
renewal of its existing franchises. At the time of their expira- 
tion, Mr. Hanna considered his company fairly entitled to such 
extensions and renewals, because they were necessary to a 
continuation of good service and its further improvement. He 
honestly believed that the interest of all concerned would be 
best satisfied in case he and his associates were encouraged to 
keep on investing their capital in the business and extending 
the service to the limit by means of the renewal of old franchises 
and the grant of new ones on liberal terms. 

As a matter of fact there were always difficulties. The mu- 
nicipal government of Cleveland, during the years when the 



MISCELLANEOUS BUSINESS INTERESTS 81 

system of the Cleveland City Railway Company was being im- 
proved, consolidated and extended, was as corrupt as that of the 
average American municipality. The council, to whom was 
intrusted the grant of franchises, was composed of petty local 
politicians whose votes usually had to be secured by some kind 
of influence. There was no effective reform sentiment in the 
community. A street railway company that applied for and 
needed particular franchises had to purchase this influence or 
else go out of business. Practically every street railway in the 
country which was confronted by this situation (few escaped 
it) adopted the alternative of buying either the needed votes 
or the needed influence. 

The West Side Street Railway Company and its successors were 
no exception to this rule. It was confronted by competitors who 
had no scruples about employing customary methods, and if 
it had been more scrupulous than they, its competitors would 
have carried off all the prizes. Mr. Hanna had, as I have said, 
a way of making straight for his goal. He was peculiarly 
intolerant of a nagging, unenlightened opposition or anything 
resembling a "hold up." He and his company did what was 
necessary to obtain the additional franchises needed for the 
development of the system. The railroad contributed to 
local campaign committees and the election expenses of par- 
ticular councilmen ; and it did so for the purpose of exercising 
an effective influence over the action of the council in street 
railway matters. 

Mr. Hanna had in the beginning fought against the increasing 
corruption of municipal politics in Cleveland ; but he had soon 
yielded and adapted himself to conditions. He was not a 
reformer either by disposition or by creed. He was always 
interested at any particular time in accomplishing some definite 
practical result, and in order to do so he took men and methods 
as he found them. What distinguished him from other Ameri- 
can business men and politicians who used similar methods 
was that the results which he wished to accomplish were usually 
good results. 

In the case of the street railway he was very anxious to give 
a thoroughly good service, and he was ready to perform every 
public duty which could in his opinion be fairly imposed upon the 



82 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

company. He neither expected to make extortionate profits, 
nor had he undertaken the business for that purpose. As a 
matter of fact the money he made in the enterprise was small 
compared to the time and energy which it had cost him. The 
stock of the company during his management never paid over 
four per cent, and the amount of water it contained, compared 
to other street railways, was exceedingly small — amounting to 
only about twenty-five per cent. Before the consolidation 
with the cable line the property of the company never had been 
bonded, because Mr. Hanna was opposed to paying dividends 
as long as the company was in debt. His financial, like his 
business, methods were thoroughly sound — as sound, to use 
his own analogy, as those of a savings bank. 

At a later date, and before Mr. Hanna died, the Cleveland 
surface railroads became the storm centre of municipal politics 
in Cleveland. They were hauled before the court of public 
opinion by Tom L. Johnson, and rightly or wrongly they were 
condemned. Whatever faults they had committed they most 
assuredly expiated. But the fact that the verdict went against 
them should not be allowed to obscure their manifest good 
behavior compared to the really flagrant cases of street rail- 
way mismanagement in Chicago and New York. 

Mark Hanna in particular was never an ordinary street rail- 
way financier. He had no interest in any street railway system 
outside of Cleveland, and the local system in which he was 
interested was a minor one, whose cars passed his own door, 
and in which he took the same sort of pride that a man might 
take in his own stable, carriages and horses. He had bought 
a collection of rusty rails, worm-eaten cars and tired horses, and 
had converted them by virtue of hard and patient work into 
an efficient railroad. His mental attitude towards his rail- 
road was always determined by his early struggles and tribula- 
tions ; and the memory of them prevented him from sufficiently 
understanding the difference between the conditions prevailing 
in the street railway business of Cleveland in 1882 and 1902. 

Public opinion, however, came to recognize that the street 
railways had passed out of the pioneer stage; and for many 
years the local politics in Cleveland were dominated by the 
clash between the old and the new conception of the proper rela- 



MISCELLANEOUS BUSINESS INTERESTS 83 

tions between the city and the street railway companies. This 
clash began during Mr. Hanna's life. It was always a source 
of political embarrassment and weakness to him, because it 
involved him, as a national political leader, too much in a local 
political issue, and one on which public opinion was running 
against him. But embarrassing as it was, and much as one 
would like to see certain aspects of Mr. Hanna's street railway 
connection expunged from the record, he remained through- 
out the whole episode true to his own standards and character- 
istic personal tendencies. He had put himself into the street 
railway just as he had put himself into Rhodes & Co., the 
Union National Bank and the theatre ; and he had become more 
of a man because of the personal expenditure. All his business 
enterprises were fundamentally personal investments, and re- 
turned to him something more and better than the wages of 
management and the current rate of interest. 



CHAPTER IX 

MARK HANNA AND HIS EMPLOYEES 

The relation between Mr. Hanna and the men who worked 
for him in his various enterprises demands special treatment, 
not only because of its intrinsic interest, but because of the 
importance which it came to have during his subsequent politi- 
cal career. In no phase of his business life are the essential traits 
of the man more clearly revealed. 

Mark Hanna's business career began, as we have seen, in 
jumpers and overalls. When he told the students of the Western 
Reserve College not to be ashamed of overalls, he was not posing 
or offering an insincere piece of advice. No doubt he had 
graduated quickly from overalls himself, and he never was an 
ordinary day-laborer, but he started with and always retained a 
hearty sympathy with the wearers of overalls and a real under- 
standing of them. As his interests multiplied and as he gave 
more and more time to politics, he was obliged to delegate to a 
large extent the management of his business ; but until the end 
Mr. Hanna was more likely to interfere in questions relating 
to the treatment of the employees than in any other branch of 
his affairs. 

I have described him as fundamentally an industrial pioneer, 
and in no aspect of his business life is the description more correct 
and more instructive in its implications than in his relations 
with his employees. The social life of the pioneers was essen- 
tially homogeneous. It was based upon good-fellowship and a 
freedom and frankness of intercourse. There were inequalities 
of wealth and position, but they did not interfere with ease and 
completeness of communication and with mutual sympathy 
and understanding. Before the ninth decade of the nineteenth 
century the early pioneer society of Ohio had disappeared. A 
vast difference had developed between the manner of life of 
a prosperous business man like Mr. Hanna and that of his 

84 



MARK HANNA AND HIS EMPLOYEES 85 

coal miners and freight handlers. But while the earlier homo- 
geneity of life had vanished, no man could be true to the pioneer 
tradition without keeping a bond of communication with the 
ordinary day-laborer. The fact that Mark Hanna did do so 
distinguishes him sharply from the common run of very success- 
ful business men of his own generation. It is the final and 
best illustration of the fundamental humanity of his disposition, 
his practice and his point of view. 

It is literally and not merely figuratively true that he kept in 
touch with his employees. Everybody in his employment felt 
free to go to him at any time. No matter whether the man was 
the head of a department or a common laborer on the docks, he 
had access to his employer. " I never knew, " says Mr. Leonard 
C. Hanna, " my brother to turn any man away. In our business 
we dealt almost entirely with common, unskilled labor, and in 
all the interests which the firm owned and directed I suppose 
we had six thousand employees. We never had serious labor 
troubles. On our docks we occasionally had local and temporary 
disturbances among the ordinary employees ; and whenever 
these occurred it was always my brother's custom to go right 
among the men. He would not ignore the superintendent, 
but would take the latter with him to the dock and hear what 
the men had to say. Then he would take such action as he 
thought to be necessary." The following despatch from Ash- 
tabula, printed in the Cleveland Leader of April 28, 1876, 
may serve as a comment on the foregoing statement: "This 
morning Mr. Hanna, of Rhodes & Co., met the striking laborers 
on the docks at Ashtabula Harbor, and after consultation the 
men accepted the terms offered and resumed work." 

Mr. Hanna's accessibility to his employees was not merely 
physical. When they reached him he always heard patiently 
and considered fairly what they had to say. If they had any 
real grievances, reparation was promptly and freely made. If 
they were making demands which in his opinion were neither 
fair nor possible, he had the gift of telling them so frankly, 
while at the same time not arousing any hard feeling. He 
could talk their language, and he could establish a common 
ground of good feeling which permitted full discussion of dif- 
ferences and which usually resulted in their adjustment. 



86 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

The case of the street railway offers the best illustration of 
the way in which they felt towards him. The railroad was, as 
I have said, his hobby, and his constant use of it enabled him 
to know the men better than he could the workers in the mines or 
on the docks. When he travelled on the cars, he usually boarded 
the front platform and joined the motormen. They were always 
glad to see him, would give him a stool on which to sit, and would 
talk freely to him. During the eighties he knew almost every 
employee by name; and later, when he was less in Cleveland 
and there were nine hundred men on the pay-roll, he continued 
to remember a large part of' them. From the day on which he 
became connected with the road there never was a strike, and 
never did the crew of a car refuse to take it out. The superin- 
tendent of the road, George G. Mulhern, states that at least one- 
third of the men who worked on the old Rocky River dummy 
road and who came to the West Side Street Railroad remained 
in Mr. Hanna's employment until he resigned as president at 
the final consolidation of the Cleveland City and Cleveland 
Electric companies — a period of over twenty-five years. 

He was always ready to receive the men in his office and talk 
to them. The delegation or committee which went to him 
about grievances usually departed either convinced or satisfied. 
Captain O. D. Brainard, a car-despatcher on the road, states 
that Mr. Hanna would allow his street railroad employees to 
see him when he would allow no one else. "I have gone," 
says Mr. Brainard, "with committees to his office when there 
would be scores of people waiting in the reception room to see 
him. He would have us brought in by a side door ahead of all 
the rest. One day when a committee wanted to see him, he 
was about to take a train and had only fifteen minutes to spare. 
But he saw them and made his other callers wait until another 
time. It made no difference whether he was in his office, his 
house, what he was doing or whom he had as guests, he would 
always honor the card of an employee. He usually knew us, for 
if he once heard a man's name, he rarely forgot it." 

Peter Cox, who was a conductor on the Detroit Street line for 
seventeen years, gives an interesting account of his relations 
with Mr. Hanna. Although working on the route used by 
Mr. Hanna himself, he never spoke to his employer until after 



MARK HANNA AND HIS EMPLOYEES 87 

an accident which had befallen Mr, Hanna during a trip on the 
Great Lakes. He had been going around on crutches, but on 
this day he walked with a cane. "When he boarded my car I 
said to him that I was glad to see him without crutches. He 
then told me the story of his accident, being as friendly and 
going into as many details as he would in case I were a close 
business associate. He said he had been to Duluth or some 
other northern port, that he had left the vessel at the dock, and 
and while returning to it he had fallen from a long ladder. I had 
the whole story. I never saw a man like him and I have worked 
for many. He always talked freely and confidentially to his men, 
no matter who they were." 

The same conductor gives an account of an interview between 
Mr. Hanna and an employee with a grievance. "The barnmen 
wanted an increase of wages. They had gone to the company's 
offices and had sent in petitions for a raise of pay, but they had 
not received an answer. Times were good and the trackmen were 
all getting raises, but the barnmen were not. In those days each 
barnman had fourteen horses to take care of; they had to be 
cleaned and watered — other men did the feeding — and the 
harness had to be thrown on and off. One of the barnmen 
waited at Detroit Street and Lake Avenue, where Mr. Hanna took 
the car, and when he came up the man said, 'Mr. Hanna, I 
have appointed myself a committee of one to wait upon you and 
see about a raise of wages.' 

"Mr. Hanna looked at him a minute and replied, 'I am 
hardly the one for that; you ought to see Mulhern.' [George 
G. Mulhern, superintendent.] 

"'Well,' the man went on to say, 'we have sent petitions 
and got no answer. So I thought I would go to the fountainhead 
myself.' Then the man told how the trackmen had had their 
wages increased. 'But your job,' Mr. Hanna answered, 'is 
good for three hundred and sixty-five days a year if you want to 
v\'ork. The job of the trackmen is only good in summer, and 
in rainy weather they can't work.' 

" 'Yes,' the barnman replied, 'but our work can't be done by 
your high-priced trackmen. Put them in our places and they 
would fail.' 

" Mark Hanna stood there and argued with that man as he 



88 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

would have argued with President McKinley. After a while he 
said, 'I will talk with George and James and you will hear 
from me.' [George G. Mulhern and James B. Hanna, son of 
Kersey Hanna and cousin of M. A. Hanna, who was general 
manager of the road.] Afterwards Mr. Hanna asked the 
general manager, referring to the man who had talked with him, 
'Who is that old fellow?' And he was told it was Frank 
Hunter, one of the best barnmen they had. Mr. Hanna 
said, 'He is a damned smart old fellow.' And the first thing 
the men knew they got their raise." 

The management of all of Mr. Hanna's enterprises was liberal 
to injured employees. When one of the stage hands of the 
theatre fell ill, he was paid eighteen dollars a week for a year 
and a half. A workman who had been injured on a dock of 
M. A. Hanna & Co. was put on the Opera House pay-roll until 
he recovered — which was a mixture of kindness and prudence. 
The man was taken care of in this way so that his fellow-work- 
men should not know of it. On the street railway the men who 
met with accidents or fell ill drew half pay as long as they were 
laid off. The company had its own physician and surgeon, 
whose services were at the disposal of any employee, free of 
charge. Mr. Hanna personally loaned money to the men, with 
which to buy homes ; and they were allowed almost to name 
the terms on which they paid him back. The motormen and 
conductors always had a lay-over of ten minutes at each end of 
the line — with a lounging room to spend it in, a billiard table 
and reading matter. No employee was allowed to drink while on 
duty ; but whenever a man was dismissed for disobedience of this 
or any other rule, he was given a second chance. Mr. Hanna 
would frequently reinstate a man over the head of the superin- 
tendent. 

The street railway employees repaid the kind and fair treat- 1 
ment they received by an unusual feeling of loyalty ; and on one 
occasion this loyalty received an effective expression. In the 
spring of 1899 Mr. Hanna had planned to go to Europe, 
chiefly for his health ; but at the last moment he hesitated, 
because of probable labor troubles in Cleveland. His own 
employees were content ; but a strike was threatened on the lines 
of his larger competitor — the "Big Consolidated." He did not 



MARK HANNA AND HIS EMPLOYEES 89 

dare to leave without some assurance that his own men would 
not be drawn by sympathy into the strike, and he asked the 
superintendent to send a delegation of thirty men to him, so 
that he could reach an understanding with them. "Boys," 
said Mr. Hanna, when they arrived, " I have been preparing to go 
to Europe for a little rest. But it looks as if there would be 
trouble on the other road, and before I go, I want to know 
whether you will be drawn into it. If there is any chance of 
trouble on our road, I won't go. But if you are satisfied and 
agree to keep at work, I will go." There was not a man in 
the delegation who did not personally assure him that he was 
to go to Europe and that they would look after the railroad. 

The men were as good as their word. The strike occurred on 
the "Big Consolidated," and it proved to be the worst of its 
kind in the history of Cleveland. For days together there 
were scenes of wild disorder. No cars could be run unless 
guarded by the police. The strikers did their best to establish 
a reign of terror, even going so far as to post observers, who were 
to take down the names of business men and politicians boarding 
the cars. Feeling ran extremely high, and the most strenuous 
attempts were made to induce the employees of the " Little 
Consolidated " to strike in sympathy. They were surrounded by 
men of their own class, and were told that victory would be easy 
if they would only leave their cars and absolutely tie up traffic 
in Cleveland. Every possible pressure was brought to bear 
upon them, but they did not waver. They continued to 
operate the road, and so kept their word to the man who always 
kept his word with them. After Mr. Hanna returned from 
Europe, a five-dollar gold piece was placed in the pay envelope 
of every employee as a small evidence of appreciation. 

During the course of his business career Mr. Hanna was in- 
volved in only one serious strike. It occurred in the Massillon 
coal district in the spring of 1876 ; and it resulted in violence, 
bloodshed, the calling out of the militia, the shooting of at 
least one striker and the criminal prosecution of others. It 
made a deep impression on Mr. Hanna. Late in life when he 
became interested in a very promising attempt to diminish the 
number of labor disputes, and when he was delivering speeches 
all over the country, urging upon employers and employees a 



90 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

program of conference and conciliation, he referred constantly to 
this early experience. It had convinced him, he said, that some 
better method must be found to adjust the differences between 
capital and labor; and his own subsequent accessibility to his 
employees may have been partly due to his consequent deter- 
mination to avoid, so far as possible, any serious misunderstand- 
ings and differences. 

The first conspicuous period of American industrial expansion 
occurred during the few years previous to 1873. It involved 
among other things an enormous and sudden growth in the 
production of coal — a growth so sudden and enormous that 
very unwholesome conditions came to prevail in the industry. 
Many mines were opened by individuals or companies with 
insufficient capital, the most dangerous and wasteful methods 
of mining were used, and for a while extremely high prices were 
paid to labor. After the panic of 1873 a process of purging took 
place, which brought severe losses or suffering to every one in- 
terested in the production, particularly of bituminous coal. 
The demand for it was cut suddenly by fifty per cent. The 
operators were poorly organized. Cut-throat competition took 
place. Conservatively managed companies found the ground 
cut from under their feet by weak competitors, who must get 
the business or fail. The whole industry was disorganized. 

The panic of 1873 and the prolonged business depression 
fell with terrible effect on the wage-earner — particularly in 
overexpanded industries like that of soft coal. The operators 
were obliged to reduce wages — in case they were to continue 
to produce ; and the reductions were severe because the ex- 
cessive rate of expansion previous to 1873 had made the wage- 
scale a burden on the industry. One cut succeeded another, and 
the miners could make no effective resistance. They were or- 
ganized after a fashion, but the union was young and weak, and 
in any event could not have withstood the avalanche. The 
more disorganized a business is, the more certainly it follows that 
the expenses of any period of acute depression will fall largely 
upon the wage-earner. No employers' organization would need 
or dare to be as remorseless and inhuman in its bargains with 
labor as are a number of competitive producers, each one of 
whom is fishting for his life. 



MARK HANNA AND HIS EMPLOYEES 91 

In the year 1873 a national association of coal miners had 
been organized as the result of a convention held at Youngstown, 
Ohio. Its officers were conservative men, and the policy of 
the association looked towards the strike only as a last resort. 
Its announced object was to secure conferences with the oper- 
ators and arbitrate differences. When the crash came, the 
price of coal began to tumble and wages were cut. John 
Siney, the president of the association, knowing that the dis- 
organized operators were helpless, counselled against strikes 
and advised the local organizations to make the best terms they 
could. In the meantime efforts were continued to increase the 
membership of the association, whose enrollment towards the 
end of 1874 amounted to 20,000 names. 

The officers of the association soon felt strong enough to make 
overtures to the operators for the establishment of friendly re- 
lations, but they met with little success. The "History of the 
Coal Miners of the United States," by Andrew Roy, states that 
Rhodes & Co. was the only exception to a series of peremptory 
refusals to recognize the union which they received from the 
producers in Cleveland. Messrs. Siney and James (the presi- 
dent and secretary) saw Mr. Hanna himself, and received his 
assurance that if they were true to their policy, as described to 
him, that he would support them and do his best to get the 
other operators to arbitrate future differences. 

About this time (that is, in the fall of 1874) the miners of 
Tuscarawas Valley were notified that the price of mining would 
be reduced from 90 to 70 cents a ton and other labor in propor- 
tion. The miners in this district had been enjoying exception- 
ally good wages and were unusually well organized. They de- 
termined to strike rather than accept the reduction. Both 
sides finally agreed, partly under the influence of President 
Siney of the national association, to submit the difference to 
arbitration. Judge Andrews of Cleveland was appointed um- 
pire. The board met in the office of Rhodes & Co., and Mark 
Hanna was one of the representatives of the operators. The 
decision went almost wholly against the miners, the price being 
fixed at 71 cents a ton. The latter accepted the award reluc- 
tantly and sullenly. They continued to work, but they felt 
that a strike would have forced from their employers better 



92 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

terms. It may be added that the award reduced the price of 
mining in the Tuscarawas field to the level which had already 
come to obtain in competing fields. The miners of that district 
protested chiefly because they had been accustomed to wages 
higher than those paid elsewhere. 

Shortly after, one of the coal companies in the district, which 
was not a member of the operators' association, made an in- 
dividual advance of nine cents a ton, in order to induce its em- 
ployees not to protest against the company's rejection of the 
usual practice of having a check-weighman at the scales. The 
discontent of the employees of the other mines was much in- 
creased by this advance, and they appealed to the general 
officers of the national association to be absolved from the 
decision of the umpire. After hearing their arguments the 
board decided to release them from the award. Immediately 
thereafter a formal demand was made upon the operators for 
eighty cents a ton ; and early in April, 1875, a conference was 
held in Akron to discuss this demand. Mr. James Ford Rhodes, 
Mark Hanna's brother-in-law, presided at this meeting. 

Mr. Hanna himself, as the head of the operators' association, 
argued the case for the employers, and his argument is worth 
quoting in part, because of the light it throws upon his opinions 
even at this early date. He admitted that the action of the 
Crawford Coal Company, in raising wages, had given the miners a 
grievance ; but he argued that they would do better to stand by the 
award. The operators, other than the Crawford Coal Company,, 
had refused to permit the abolition of the check-weighman, 
because the miners had a right to that protection ; and they 
should not be penalized for standing by their employees in this 
matter by being asked or forced to raise wages. In addition 
he made a general argument in favor of the arbitration of in- 
dustrial disputes, and of what would now be called collective 
bargaining between associations of employers and employees. 

The men insisted on an advance, and when they began to 
strike the operators yielded. But not for long. On August 1 
the operators succeeded in reducing the price from eighty to 
seventy-five cents — which prevailed in the valley until March, 
1876. Then a further reduction to sixty-five cents was proposed. 
The officers of the union advised the miners to compromise 



MARK HANNA AND HIS EMPLOYEES 93 

on seventy cents, but they were ignored and a strike declared. 
The operators attempted to break the strike. They collected 
some miners in and around Cleveland, and with them manned 
a mine, situated a few miles south of Massillon. This mine is 
described as the Warmington, and belonged either to George H. 
Warmington, a partner of Mr. Hanna, or else to Rhodes & Co. 
In either event it would have been operated by the firm. About 
the middle of April the operators proposed to place more men 
at work on the mine, and on April 14 a second batch of strike- 
breakers was sent out under the direction of Mr. Warmington 
himself. Several hundred of the strikers were holding a meet- 
ing near the mine when the strangers arrived, and an orderly 
meeting was converted by the sight of the "scabs" into a howl- 
ing mob. They made a rush for the car. Accounts vary as to 
precisely what occurred thereafter. According to the " History 
of the Coal Miners," from which I have already quoted, Mr. 
Warmington ordered the strikers to halt, and threatened them 
with a pistol. A contemporary account in the Cleveland 
Leader makes no mention of such a weapon. At any rate, 
the miners rushed forward, knocked Mr. Warmington down, 
and would have beaten him to death, had not two of their own 
number, Bennett Brown and William Ellwood, saved his life 
at the risk of their, own. 

Disorder prevailed throughout the district. The sheriff was 
helpless and petitioned the Governor, Rutherford B. Hayes, for 
troops. After some hesitation a company of the militia was 
sent to Massillon and placed in the Warmington mine. The 
night following their appearance the strikers captured the other 
mines thereabouts operated by Rhodes & Co., and set them 
on fire. The soldiers, however, soon suppressed the violence. 
Many arrests were made, and one miner was shot while at- 
tempting to escape. The disorder caused the operators to 
cooperate more vigorously, and in the end the strikers had to 
return to work with their pay diminished to sixty-five cents a 
ton. Within a couple of years their wages had been cut by two- 
sevenths. 

Feehng ran high against the disorderly miners, and it was 
not easy to find an attorney to defend them. Finally their de- 
fence was undertaken by William McKinley, Jr., the case being 



94 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

tried at Canton, the county seat. His pleading was so successful 
that out of twenty-three indicted men only one was convicted, 
and he was sent to the penitentiary for three years. The trial 
took place just before the convention which gave to McKinley 
his first nomination for Congress. 

Inasmuch as Mark Hanna, as the head of the operators' 
association, was in Canton during the trial, his first meeting 
with McKinley may have taken place on this occasion ; but 
if such is the case the meeting made no impression on either 
of the two men. Mr. Hanna, in an article on "McKinley as I 
Knew Him," published after the President's death, explicitly 
states that he has no recollection of his first meeting with his 
friend. He believes it took place ''early in the seventies" — 
as well it might, for his business interests must have frequently 
taken him to the region in which McKinley was a rising and 
popular young lawyer and politician. Judge George E. Bald- 
win, who was associated with McKinley as counsel of the ac- 
cused miners, states that he is ''sure" that the meeting at Can- 
ton during the trial was not the first meeting. He knew both 
men well throughout many years, and neither of them ever spoke 
to him about the matter — as they would be likely to do, be- 
cause of his intimate connection with the case as leading coun- 
sel. In any event, even if the first meeting did occur at Canton 
in June, 1876, during the trial, it was merely a casual contact, 
which resulted in no closer association for many years. 

Such is the story of the one serious disagreement with their 
employees in which any of Mr. Hanna's companies were en- 
tangled. If the miners were hardly treated on this occasion, 
that was the result of general conditions, which no individual 
was powerful enough to check. Mr. Hanna himself, at a time 
when labor-unions were regarded with even greater disfavor 
by employers than they are at present, was friendly to the 
unions. John James, the secretary of the Miners' National 
Association in 1875 and 1876, states that "he was the first min- . 
ing operator in the bituminous fields of the United States to 1 
recognize the cardinal principle of arbitration in the settlement 
of wages, disputes, and the first also to recognize the 'Miners' 
National Association.'" During the whole of their intercourse 
Mr. James found him to be "one of the most intelligent, con- 



i 



MARK HANNA AND HIS EMPLOYEES 95 

siderate and conservative" of the operators. Ih was always 
accessible to the officers of the union, and he aivays freely 
recognized the "real rights and interests of labor." 

The reader must not understand that Mr, Hanna bec.tne an 
active advocate of labor organization and went out of hib^ay 
to favor unions among his employees. His early record meiiy 
shows that he was much more liberal than the ordinary employe, 
in recognizing the laborer's right to organize, and much more 
quick to perceive the advantages to both parties of collective 
bargaining and regular methods of industrial conciliation. But 
the chief fact is that he applied to his own business the 
method of always keeping close to his employees, always lis- 
tening respectfully to their demands, of alwaj^s granting the 
just claims of his men as a body and of always treating needy 
individuals with generosity. At a time when many American 
employers overlooked the fact that their relation to their em- 
ployees was a human as well as an economic relation, Mark 
Hanna always treated them as far as he could as men. The 
subsequent interest which he took in labor problems, and the 
subsequent policy which he advocated as a means of avoiding 
industrial disputes, were both of them a result and an expression 
of his own practice as an employer. 



CHAPTER X 

CHARACTERISTICS IN BUSINESS 

Mark Hanna has been described as an industrial pioneer. 
An analytic account of his characteristics as a business man will 
confirm the description. The typical pioneer of the period of 
rapid industrial expansion after the Civil War differed in cer- 
tain respects from both the agricultural and industrial pioneers 
of the generation preceding the war, but the differences be- 
tween the two types are insignificant compared to the funda- 
mental similarities. Mr. Hanna was not only the sort of in- 
dustrial pioneer whose methods and achievements illuminate 
and dignify the economic life of his generation, but he remained 
true to his type, even after many of his own early associates 
had departed from it. His political career and system, as well 
as his business career, cannot be properly understood except as 
the expression and result of his point of view and his experience 
as an industrial pioneer. 

Mark Hanna's salient characteristic in business was initiative. 
He was essentially, if not exclusively, an entrepreneur. He 
broke new ground. He started and developed enterprises. 
The Middle West of the seventies and eighties was seething 
with industrial and commercial opportunities — mines to be 
developed, factories to be started, lines of trade to be laid out 
and established, mechanical improvements to be introduced 
and perfected, and commerce to be organized with increasing 
efficiency and economy. In order to take advantage of these 
opportunities a man needed an aggressive will, an abundant 
energy, and an alert, shrewd, and comprehensive mind. Such 
qualifications Mark Hanna conspicuously possessed, and they 
found full and effective expression in the policy and organiza- 
tion of Rhodes & Co., and M. A. Hanna & Co. Their policy 
aimed at the encouragement of enterprises which would produce 
commodities to be handled and sold by the firm; and its exe- 

9G 



CHARACTERISTICS IN BUSINESS 97 

cution demanded business qualities, unusual in their variety^ 
in their intensity and in the individuahty of their combination. 

"He was choke-full of energy," says Mr. Robert R. Rhodes, 
his brother-in-law and early partner, "aggressive and progres- 
sive." "His very first desire was to be the head and front of 
every enterprise in which he was engaged," says Mr. Andrew 
Squire, his attorney for twenty years, "to be the leader in his 
own business and his own affairs." "He was always leading," 
says Mr. A. C. Saunders, another early associate, "and was 
quick to drop one thing and take up another. It is a great 
thing for a man to know when to let go. Mr. Hanna knew 
when to quit — that was one of the secrets of his apparent good 
fortune. He was tremendously interested in anything new. 
If his judgment approved of it, he was enthusiastic in push- 
ing it and testing its value. But he quickly sensed a failure 
and turned to something else with equal energy and courage." 
This passion for leadership and this insistent but alert initiative 
kept pushing him forward and made him eager to seize oppor- 
tunities, to stamp his own will on events, and exert effective 
influence and power. He was never afraid to go ahead and to 
take the risks and the responsibilities incidental to leadership. 
Under the economic conditions of his own day and region, his 
aggressive and dominating will resulted inevitably in a highly 
enterprising business policy, which he was able successfully to 
carry out because his initiative was sustained by an equally 
emphatic executive ability. 

When he had anything to do, he did not spare himself in the 
doing of it. "He was a hard worker, " says Mr. Rhodes, "and 
a man who applied himself very closely to his business. In in- 
dustry he was unsurpassed." Another early partner adds 
testimony to the same effect. According to Mr. A. C. Saunders, 
his industry was extraordinary. " He was an inveterate worker. 
When I first went into his office he had to travel a good deal. 
He would return, write his letters and be off again. Few peo- 
ple realized how hard, he worked. Often he used to stay until 
late at night, and I as his secretary stayed with him. He would 
tire me out." But while he worked hard he also worked well ; 
and he could quickly change from work to play. During the 
years of his closest application to business he entertained freely^ 



98 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

and kept very much alive his other great interest — which was 
a love of companionship. 

His unusual industry was directed by a mind which had mas- 
tered every detail of his business. For one thing he was dur- 
ing his early years an extremely successful salesman. He had 
the gift of persuading other people to do what he wanted them 
to do. Mr. Lucius F. Mellen, an early competitor, states that 
"Mark could beat us all in a trade and in getting customers." 
Mr. E. H. Bourne, who succeeded Mr. Hanna as president of 
the Union National Bank, but who was at one time his com- 
petitor in the coal business, tells of an occasion on which the 
city of Chicago was asking for bids on a large quantity of coal. 
Coal dealers from Pennsylvania and Ohio flocked to Chicago 
to try for the business, among them Mr. Hanna. Many of 
the salesmen stopped at the same hotel, and they were smilingly 
informed by Mr. Hanna one morning that the contract had been 
awarded to him. He beat the field, because, according to Mr. 
Bourne, he was remarkable in obtaining the information he 
needed and then in taking such action as was best adapted to 
get the business. 

Another of his gifts which was of peculiar value to his business 
was an aptitude for mechanics. An understanding of machin- 
ery was natural to him, so that he was thoroughly and intelli- 
gently familiar with the mechanical details of a business, whose 
prosperity became in the course of years more and more a matter 
of the efficient use of machinery. Mr. A. B. Hough, who took 
many trips with him on the iron ore vessels up the Lakes, testi- 
fies to his exact knowledge, not only of the mechanism of the 
boats, but of every detail of its operation, including the capa- 
bilities of its officers, the details of its expense account and the 
like. "He used to surprise me," says Mr. Squire, "with his 
knowledge of the principles of mechanics. He and Mr. J. F. 
Pankhurst worked out a plan, by which a dynamo was directly 
connected to one of the engines of a power plant in which they 
were interested ; and I think I am right in saying that this had 
never been done before." Partly as a result of Mr. Hanna's 
aptitude for mechanics, his firm was closely associated with the 
development of the machinery necessary for the more economi- 
cal conduct of their business. We have already seen how im- 



CHARACTERISTICS IN BUSINESS 99 

portant was the part which H. M. Hanna and his brother played 
in the improvement of lake shipping. The contribution made by 
the firm to the development of mining and coal and iron hand- 
ling machinery is said to have been equally substantial. 

A business which was constantly expanding, and which re- 
quired the exercise of so many aptitudes on the part of its di- 
rector could never become a matter of routine. Like the sea 
of economic conditions by which it was surrounded, it was al- 
ways in a condition of unstable equilibrium. New adjustments 
were continually being required, and the making of these adjust- 
ments demanded the constant attention of a steady, alert, all- 
round man, — a man who could do many things and all of them 
sufficiently well. Specialism on the one hand or mere conserva- 
tism on the other would either have wrecked the business or 
entirely changed its character. Its director was much in the 
same situation as an aviator, who must sit with his hand on 
the lever ready for any shifting of the currents of air, and who 
knows that the equilibrium of his machine depends upon his 
ability to keep it going. 

Mark Hanna in a sense made such a situation for himself. 
Or rather such a situation was the inevitable result of his aggres- 
sive, enterprising, dominating personality. He was always on 
campaign — always planning the movement of his forces so as 
to obtain surer and completer control of the firm's existing ter- 
ritory or, wherever possible, to occupy new and important 
strategic points. Such campaigns involve, of course, the tak- 
ing of chances ; but only one of his partners complains that he 
took dangerous and unwise chances. Mr. Rhodes states that 
Mr. Hanna sought to enlarge the firm's business in ways his 
partners did not always consider prudent. They tried to hold 
him down — not always with success, because he would some- 
times go ahead without even consulting them. If there is any 
truth in this criticism, it applies to his early rather than to his 
later career. In the beginning he may have taken some long 
chances in order to accelerate the progress of the firm, but 
later his boldness was tempered with caution. Such is the 
unanimous testimony of his other partners. A man of his 
disposition necessarily took chances; but if he took chances, 
he knew how to carry them off. 



100 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

Only once in his business career does he seem to have been 
involved in a precarious position. The Globe Ship-building 
Company, of which H. M. Hanna was president, and in which 
Mark Hanna was heavily interested, had built five ore-carrying 
vessels for Ferdinand Schlesinger of Milwaukee. Mr. Schle- 
singer was a business ally of Mr. Hanna's, in whom the latter 
had great personal confidence. He was the owner of some valu- 
able iron mines in the Menominee range, including the very 
exceptional Chapin mine, whose product was sold through 
M. A. Hanna & Co. Mr. Schlesinger gave them an advanta- 
geous contract for carrying the ore in return for the vessels — 
thus practically pledging the mines for the payment of the 
boats. The brothers figured that at the end of six years the 
contract for transporting the ore would reimburse the com- 
pany for the cost of the ships. 

The arrangement looked good, because by means of the com- 
bination each of the parties to the contract was able to trans- 
act a substantially larger amount of business. Unfortunately, 
however, Mr. Schlesinger overreached himself and failed. He 
had built a railroad in order to haul his ore to the Lakes, and he 
had strained his resources in so doing. He was involved to the 
extent of several million dollars, and the brothers found their 
heavy investment on the strength of the contract compromised. 
They had what Mr. H. M. Hanna describes as a lively winter. 
They had to spend a large part of it in New York working out a 
settlement which would enable them to get back their security. 
Finally they succeeded. A purchaser was found for the rail- 
road in the Northwestern Railroad Company. H. M. Hanna 
took back the boats, and M. A. Hanna & Co. emerged with 
the Chapin mine. The experience was an unpleasant one for 
men who, in their own business, never ventured bej^ond their 
depth ; but it proved to be very profitable in its ultimate re- 
sults. In 1899 the Chapin mine was sold to the National Steel 
Company at a large advance over its .cost. 

This dangerous complication was due chiefly to Mark Hanna's 
personal confidence in Ferdinand Schlesinger; and it should 
be added that his confidence was not misplaced. Partly owing 
to Mr. Hanna's assistance, Mr. Schlesinger later made another 
start, obtained possession of some iron mines of apparently 



CHARACTERISTICS IN BUSINESS 101 

doubtful value, and was justified in his judgment by their 
development into extremely valuable properties. Thus he 
completely recovered himself, and the alliance between Mr. 
Schlesinger and his sons and M. A. Hanna & Co. has continued 
until the present day. 

Mark Hanna, for all his aggressive initiative, was not a man 
to skate on thin ice. He took certain necessary risks, but he 
was never a speculator in the sense of a man who merely gam- 
bled on his business judgment. He was an organizer and a 
manager as well as an initiator of enterprises. The different 
aspects of his business policy hung together, and aimed event- 
ually at giving security as well as volume to the business of the 
firm. It has remained what he made it — viz. a business 
depending on personal direction and in some measure on per- 
sonal relations ; but it was none the less a carefully and intelli- 
gently wrought structure, whose stability was founded on sound 
economic ideas. 

"In my thirty years of business experience," says Mr. Leon- 
ard C. Hanna, "I have never known a mind which had such a 
firm grasp on the essentials of a business proposition"; and this 
ability to fasten on essentials seems to have been due not merely 
to his knowledge of the conditions affecting any particular busi- 
ness affair, but to thoroughly sound general ideas and methods. 
He had the faculty of "getting in right" instead of wrong. The 
accuracy and the force of his judgment on specific business ques- 
tions was assisted by a correct general estimate of the dominant 
values in his own business world. H. M. Hanna testifies that 
his brother had a definite and comprehensive conception of 
the channels, through which the great American domestic com- 
merce was bound to flow and of the opportunities, which were 
offered to Cleveland business men of assembling the raw ma- 
terials necessary to the steel and iron industries and of furnish- 
ing the means of transportation. His other brother, Mr. Leon- 
ard Hanna, states that he early acquired an equally definite 
idea of the dominant principle underlying the characteristic 
American industrial organization — the principle of keeping 
control of the several processes by means of which raw materials 
are worked up for use, and of deriving some profit from all of 
them. It was because the business of M. A. Hanna & Co. was 



102 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

based partly on this principle that it escaped the fate which 
might have befallen, under later conditions, an unprotected com- 
mission business. 

The mixture of balance and prudence in his business policy, 
and of personal flexibility and impersonal stability in his busi- 
ness achievements, was the natural expression of two different 
aspects of Mark Hanna's disposition. His nature was impul- 
sive, and his impulses frequently had an explosive expression, 
but at the same time he was cautious and considerate. Al- 
though his will was insistent and aggressive, it was not head- 
strong. He knew what he could and could not do, and he 
knew when and how long to wait. All the most important ac- 
tions of his life were the result of unconscious instincts and in- 
tentions rather than conscious purposes ; but he had no sooner 
acted in obedience to some deep-rooted personal instinct than 
his candid intelligence began with coolness and caution to search 
for the best means of making his will prevail. His will was 
strong and dominant, largely because it was not calculating; 
and it was effective, because once having been "set" it could 
call to its assistance the resources of a well-stored, ingenious 
and deliberate mind. Mark Haima's experience came to him 
as the result for the most part of his instinctive action, but he 
digested and used it by virtue of a capable and considerate 
intelligence. 

Almost all of Mr. Hanna's close associates testify to this 
combination of unconscious and deliberate elements in his be- 
havior. Mr. Leonard C. Hanna remarks that while his de- 
cisions were often the result of study and reflection, they also 
came at times from intuition. Mr. Andrew Squire says that 
he seemed to know by intuition things that other men had to 
acquire by reading and long experience ; but this shrewd wit- 
ness adds that Mr. Hanna was not ordinarily a man of quick 
judgment. He usually canvassed a matter thoroughly before 
reaching a conclusion, and when once the decision was made, 
he was hard to move. *' While Mr. Hanna was quick to reach 
a conclusion," says Mr. A. C. Saunders, "he was not hasty. 
He thought things over very carefully. He would give a mat- 
ter of importance considerable time, and when his mind was 
made up, go into it with his whole heart. I should say that he 



CHARACTERISTICS IN BUSINESS 103 

was both a bold man and a careful one. He took risks, but he 
never went beyond his depth, and invariably had his enter- 
prises safely financed before he attempted to carry them out. 
All of us consulted him on practically all matters, and he knew 
the business so well that most of his decisions would come 
quickly. He also consulted his partners and frequently acted 
on their recommendation. He was usually right, but he could 
be convinced of his error whenever he was wrong." 

Mark Hanna's relation with other men brings out, however, 
his best qualities in business as in politics. His great success 
as an organizer was the outcome chiefly of his faculty of getting 
good work and loyal cooperation out of his associates ; and the 
testimony of Mr. Saunders in the preceding paragraph affords 
some inkling as to the way in which such results were obtained. 
He organized everything with which he was concerned, and 
in organizing he was obliged to delegate responsibility. But 
his organizations never became mere machines. They were 
always living things, to which their director imparted his own 
vitality. He had the faculty of supervising without inter- 
fering, and of making his own general responsibility effective 
without emasculating the specific responsibilities of his subordi- 
nates and associates. His success in this respect was not, of 
course, due to the application of any definite rule, but to the 
plane of mutual confidence and understanding, on which the 
relationship was established. 

The keystone of his business structure was absolute integrity 
in the fulfilment of his contracts. Mr. Leonard C. Hanna as- 
serts that from January, 1875, when he entered the firm, until 
the day of Mark Hanna's death, he never knew the binding 
quality of any agreement, no matter how disadvantageous, to 
be questioned. They never considered for a moment the pos- 
sibility of evading an engagement. "I have sat here, " he says, 
" for thirty years " (his statement was made in 1905), " and during 
that time I have seen hundreds of thousands of dollars lost by 
contracts, but never was there a hint that the obligation was 
not to be fulfilled to the letter. If we agreed to sell pig-iron at 
a certain price, and an increase in the cost of the raw materials 
caused us to lose a very large sum of money, the man who 
bought the iron got it. In 1903 the price of pig-iron fell five 



104 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

or six dollars a ton very quickly. The firm of M. A. Hanna 
& Co. had a large amount of business booked ahead at the 
higher price ; and after the fall many purchasers of our iron 
backed out of their contracts, and many others tried to do so. 
Although we could not sell the product at the price, we took 
all the raw materials we had agreed to buy. So it had always 
been during the business career of Mark Hanna." Mr. Hanna 
adds that his brother would never do any more business with a 
man who repudiated his contracts. 

This scrupulous business integrity was in Mr. Hanna's case 
something more than ordinary honesty. It was partly an ex- 
pression of the instinctive loyalty which pervaded all his per- 
sonal associations. The business of M. A. Hanna & Co. was 
based not only on a system of contracts, but also upon a group 
of alliances ; and the substance of many of these contracts and 
all of these alliances consisted of a personal tie. He had con- 
fidence in other people, and he inspired it in them. His firm, 
although a producer itself, could not have become and remained 
the sales-agent of so many independent producers unless these 
men knew that their agent was dealing fairly with them and 
was not discriminating for or against any one of its customers. 
The consequence was an unusual permanence in the alliances, 
by virtue of which M. A. Hanna & Co. procured a large part of 
its business. Its relations with the Pennsylvania Railroad, 
the Canbria Iron Co., with the Schlesingers and others, began 
early and endured throughout and beyond Mr. Hanna's life. 

His attorney, Mr. Andrew Squire, emphasizes particularly 
one peculiarity of Mr. Hanna's in his method of negotiating a 
contract. Instead of insisting upon those aspects of an agree- 
ment which might make it look attractive to his interlocutor, 
his method and habit was frequently to bring out and never to 
disguise the dubious aspects of a proposed transaction. His 
motive in so doing, according to Mr. Squire, was to avoid any 
possible future disappointment or misunderstanding, and so, 
even if that particular transaction was disadvantageous, to 
create or maintain confidential relations with the man. Mr. 
Squire's partner, James H. Dempsey, testifies to the same effect. 
"Mr. Hanna," he says, "never made his offer so small that 
there was no chance of the other man taking it up. In making 



CHARACTERISTICS IN BUSINESS 105 

a large contract, he usually knew exactly what it was worth to 
his firm and he invariably based his proposals on a live-and-let- 
live rule. He never sought to get something for nothing and 
he never drove a hard bargain." The bargain, that is, was al- 
ways subordinated to the obligation of dealing fairly with the 
other man. 

Mr. James J. Hill cites a specific instance of Mark Hanna's 
candor and scrupulous fairness in business negotiations which is 
worth quoting in detail, and which shows why his associates 
had implicit confidence in him. In 1870 Mr. Hill went to Cleve- 
land to buy a considerable quantity of gas coal. His intention 
was to purchase Youghiogheny coal, and he stepped into the 
office of Rhodes & Co., met Mr. Hanna and asked for prices on 
that particular stock. Mr. Hanna replied that he had Youghio- 
gheny coal for sale, but that his firm were simply agents for it. 
Then going to a window and pointing across the street, he said : 
"There is the central office of the company that mines the sort 
of coal you want, and my suggestion is that you deal directly 
with them. I have no doubt that you can buy it as cheaply as 
we can, and by giving them your order you will save the com- 
mission." Mr. Hill was so much impressed by Mr. Hanna's 
fair dealing that the result of the incident was a series of 
mutually advantageous business transactions. He implies that 
Mr. Hanna could easily either have sold him the coal he 
wanted on commission or else sold him some other similar coal 
as a substitute. 

Many of his business ties were so enduring and so personal 
that they were rather friendships than alliances. Indeed, al- 
most all of Mr. Hanna's close business associates became friends, 
for he was never satisfied until he had made a friend out of a 
man whom he liked and trusted. Once the friendship was 
formed it was rarely shattered. Mr. Hanna would not only do 
anything in his power to keep his friend, but he often became 
blind to the man's faults. Ordinarily he was a shrewd judge 
of other people. His clear bright brown eyes had in them a 
searching quality, which made the object of his inspection feel 
transparent and exposed. As a matter of fact, he usually put 
a correct estimate upon his associates and assistants — as may 
be inferred from his success as an organizer. But, of course, 



106 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

he made his mistakes in his business as well as in his political 
allies, and if he had come to have any friendship for a man whom 
he had made a mistake in trusting, it was hard to convince him 
of his error. He would remain faithful to the tie — even when 
the man had, to the satisfaction of other people, shown himself 
to be unworthy, not merely of loyalty, but sometimes of respect. 

Inevitably a man like Mr. Hanna made enemies in business 
as well as friends. He had, indeed, no gift for personal quar- 
rels as he had a gift for personal loyalties. He did not cherish 
grudges. There was nothing vindictive in his nature. But he 
liked to have his own way, and if any other man blocked a path 
which he believed himself entitled to travel, the obstructor 
might well be somewhat roughly and ruthlessly pushed aside. 
When he was in a fight he fought hard, and like all strong and 
self-willed men he enjoyed fighting. Probably he made cer- 
tain unnecessary enmities. He was at times during his business 
career an unpleasantly plain-dealer. Certain of his associates 
testify, indeed, that never in their presence was he brusque or 
harsh ; but evidently he could be harsh, when he was rubbed or 
had rubbed himself the wrong way. One unfavorable witness 
states that during his early years he "was positively indifferent 
to popularity." 

The witness quoted above may well be exaggerating, for he 
admitted some measure of prejudice. But there is sufficient 
corrobation for the general statement that he might at times be, 
or appear to be, arbitrary and self-assertive. He was a quick, 
impulsive man, impatient of what seemed to him unnecessary 
and perverse opposition, and when excited he might become 
peremptory in manner and explosive in speech. He might in the 
heat of the moment blurt out his opinions without any mincing 
of words, and without, perhaps, very much consideration for 
the feelings of others. Many men who subsequently became 
his friends and warm admirers were, before they came to know 
him, prejudiced against him by his manner and local reputation. 

Judge William B. Sanders, who was for many years associated 
with Mr. Squire and Mr. Dempsey as attorneys for Mr. Hanna, 
says of him: "In Mr. Hanna's business life, before he became 
known as a national politician, he had not learned the art of 
saying 'No' without offence. He was plain and quick, and 



CHARACTERISTICS IN BUSINESS 107 

frequently hurt and offended people with whom he had a 
difference. However, a change came over him in this respect. 
I remember that I was in his room in St. Louis during the Re- 
publican Convention of 1896 when a delegation of colored men, 
delegates representing several Southern states, came to see him. 
They were after money, and he knew it. In the old days he 
would have kicked them out of the room ; but on this occasion 
he politely refused them without hurting their feelings." One 
cannot help wishing that under the circumstances he had been 
less diplomatic, and had ruthlessly hurt their feelings — as- 
suming, of course, that it was their feelings which would have 
been chiefly hurt by the act of kicking them out of the room. 

The foregoing account of Mark Hanna will, I think, justify 
the description of him as a business man who carried over into 
the period of industrial expansion the best characteristics of 
the pioneer. The industrial pioneer of the seventies needed 
qualities and methods different in certain respects from those 
of the early pioneers. Mr. Hanna, for instance, was a great or- 
ganizer, and he could not have made his success unless he had 
believed both in organization and in the delegation of power 
and responsibility. But like them, he was an all-round man of 
action, whose behavior was determined chiefly by instinctive 
motives and external conditions, and who used his intelligence 
merely for the purpose of making his will effective. Like them 
he was performing a necessary preliminary work of economic 
construction, and one in which for the most part his own in- 
terest as a maker and an organizer of enterprises was coincident 
with the public interest. As with them, the aggressive individu- 
alism of his private business life obtained dignity from its as- 
sociation with an essential task of social and economic construc- 
tion. And finally, as in the case of the better pioneers, he had 
the feelings and the outlook of a man who has done more than 
accumulate a fortune. His methods in business and the way 
in which he gave personality and humanity to his business 
life all tended to the fulfilment of social as well as individual 
purposes. 

His individual social edifice had the disadvantages as well 
as the advantages of being wrought at the prompting of in- 
stinctive rather than conscious motives. If it had contained a 



108 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

larger conscious element, it probably would not have been so 
effective, because it would not have squared in other respects 
with his essentially objective disposition. But its unconscious- 
ness always made him callous to the fact that certain phases 
of his business demanded essentially unsocial action — such, for 
instance, as influencing elections to the Common Council in 
the interest of his street railway company. He was, that is, 
a man of wholesome and varied social instincts which had a 
powerful and edifying effect upon his life and the life of his as- 
sociates, but he was not a man of civic and social ideals — in 
which again he was true to his pioneer type. 

The fact, however, that his business methods were born of 
a deeply rooted American tradition and had a definite social 
value was salutary. It enabled him to draw for the success of 
his subsequent political career upon sources of energy outside 
of himself. In case he had become the kind of a business man 
that many rich Americans of his generation did become, any 
but an insignificant political success would have been impos- 
sible. A financier may buy or earn a politicial position, but he 
cannot accomplish much by means of it. Mark Hanna al- 
ways remained a Cleveland merchant, and his business remained, 
as I have said, personal and local. He rarely, if ever, embarked 
in enterprises which he did not personally control. He never 
"set up" as a capitalist, and bought with his money other men 
to do his work. He put back his profits, either in the coal and 
iron business, or in some other local enterprise, over which he 
exercised personal supervision. All his enterprises were Cleve- 
land enterprises or immediately related thereto. He was rooted 
in his native business soil, and his personality and his work 
depended for their value on local associations and responsibili- 
ties. He had too sound an instinct for the sources of his own 
personal dignity and power to let himself become a homeless 
financier. The consequence was that when he entered politics 
as a business man, he represented a vital and a genuinely popu- 
lar American business tradition. 

He never was essentially a money-maker. If he had been, 
he might have made very much more money than he actually! 
did. His business life is inextricably entangled with his do- 
mestic and his social life. He never hesitated either to spend 



CHARACTERISTICS IN BUSINESS 109 

money or to sacrifice the making of it in the interest of something 
better worth while. As much as any very successful business 
man, and far more than the average, Mark Hanna earned by 
personal economic services his private fortune. He made a 
genuine contribution to the economic development of the Cleve- 
land district at a time when such contributions were not dis- 
proportionately rewarded by any accession of scarcity values. 
When his political enemies stamped the sign of the dollar on 
Mark Hanna, they literally turned his relation to money upside 
down. What they should have done was to stamp on every 
dollar he made the initials "M. A. H." — the Hanna mark. 



CHAPTER XI 

BEGINNINGS IN POLITICS 

We have already seen that about 1880 the range of Mark 
Hanna's business interests began suddenly to widen. The 
dozen years following 1867 were spent chiefly in a laborious 
and enterprising effort to establish the business of Rhodes 
& Co. on firm and broad foundations and to expand it to the 
limit of its opportunities. The full fruits of this effort were 
not gathered until after the revival of business in 1879. Thence- 
forward Mark Hanna had the spare money and the leisure to 
undertake other enterprises. He emerges as one of a score of 
men who had become peculiarly prominent in Cleveland busi- 
ness ; and almost simultaneously he began also to obtain a 
certain prominence in local politics. During the campaign 
of 1880, resulting in the election of James A. Garfield, he begins 
to count as a politician. 

His interest in politics does not date from 1880 any more than 
his interest in business dates from 1867. He had always been 
interested in politics, although there is some conflict of testi- 
mony as to the point of departure of his earlier political activity. 
The statement has been made that his street railway interests 
first induced him to take a hand in the political game ; but of 
all the eye-witnesses of Mr. Hanna's career only one lends any 
support to this explanation. Mr. Charles F. Leach, formerly 
Collector of Customs in Cleveland, and one of Mr. Hanna's 
own appointees, states that before he knew intimately his sub- 
sequent political chief, he had been prejudiced against Mr. 
Hanna. "I had heard of him as a local politician for what ap- 
peared to be his business interests. I had known him to stand 
at a corner on the West Side and peddle tickets for a candi- 
date to the City Council who was supposed to be all right on 
street railroad matters or anything else that might come up." 
That Mr. Hanna at one time was not indifferent to the kind of 

110 



BEGINNINGS IN POLITICS 111 

men who were elected to the City Council and their attitude 
towards the street railway is true; but it is equally true that 
this was only a later and incidental phase of his political ac- 
tivity. The main spring thereof is to be sought in a wholly 
different direction. 

The generation of business men to which Mr. Hanna belonged, 
particularly in the Middle West, took during their early lives a 
more earnest and innocent interest in politics than have their 
successors. Before the war almost all the good citizens of Ohio 
had been somewhat active in politics. After the war political 
activity became rapidly more and more professional ; but the 
average business man still participated to a large extent in practical 
political work. He was likely to attend the primaries and per- 
haps spend the whole of election day at the polls. He did so 
because he was a Republican or a Democrat, not so much 
from inheritance, habit or interest, as from personal conviction. 
The memory of the war was still vivid. Republicanism was 
still associated with patriotic unionism, Democracy with se- 
cession. The Republican party in particular was still made up 
of its founders. 

Mark Hanna was a primitive Republican. His family had 
been antislavery Whigs. His first presidential vote had been 
cast for Lincoln. He, his brother and most of his friends had 
served with the Northern forces during the war. He was a 
Republican up to the hilt — a Republican so black as to make 
him an undesirable son-in-law in the eyes of an ardent Demo- 
crat. But when a man of Mark Hanna's disposition believes 
in anything, he does not ruminate about it : he acts on it. Some 
sort of action was his essential method of personal expres- 
sion. Indeed, it might be truer to put it the other way. His 
strong convictions were in a sense the by-products of his actions. 
Any conviction upon which he failed to act would have lan- 
guished. He could scarcely have remained a convinced Re- 
publican unless he had actually participated in Republican 
party business. 

That he did so from the start there is abundant proof. His 
wife says that ever since the beginning of their acquaintance^ 
he used to attend the primaries and perform active work at 
the polls on election day. As early as 1869 he was elected a 



J 



\\yu 



112 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

member in the Cleveland Board of Education. He served for 
two years in this capacity, but did not attend much more 
than half the meetings of the board. It must be remembered 
that the business of Rhodes & Co. kept him travelling a 
great deal of the time. That he was elected for the position 
indicates a certain political prominence in his own ward. That 
he accepted an "honor" office of that kind indicates some pub- 
lic spirit. That he was never reelected may mean that he could 
not give as much time as was necessary to the work. He was 
accustomed even then to dealing ^vith large affairs in an au- 
thoritative way, and he may well have found the petty details 
of the work and its lack of any real opportunity for effective 
achievement irksome and futile. 

Mr. Andrew Squire and Mr. A. C. Saunders recollect Mr. 
Hanna as an active party worker in the old ninth ward towards 
the middle of the seventies. He could always be counted on for 
presence at the polls and at the primaries, and for assistance in 
the task of getting the vote out and securing an honest count. 
Mr. Daniel Myers, a wholesale druggist in Cleveland, asserts 
that when a young man, he remembers attending a political 
meeting at which Mr. Hanna also was present. The date was 
not far from 1870. The object of the meeting was to stir u^ 
opposition to a ward boss who had been controlling the nomina- 
tions for the office of city councilman. The foremost business 
men in the district attended the conference, and Mr. Hanna 
was one of the prominent speakers. He urged upon his hearers 
the need of an open and honest primary election, and the neces- 
sity of participation by the "better element" of the ward in 
active political work. 

The date of another similar incident may be fixed definitely 
in 1873. At that time the Cleveland municipal elections were 
held in the spring, and were preceded by onl}^ a very short 
campaign. The Republicans nominated John Huntington 
The nomination was unfit, and many Republicans, including 
Mark Hanna, decided to bolt. A meeting was called, in which 
Mr. Hanna was prominent, and it agreed to support Charles A. 
Otis, a Democrat, but not one who had been active in politics. 
Mr. Otis was elected, while the rest of the Democratic ticke 
was defeated. 



Sj 





A 




Mark Hanna abodt 1877 



BEGINNINGS IN POLITICS 113 

These instances sufficiently indicate that IVIr. Hanna's 
active interest in politics long antedated his connection with 
the street railway. Neither he nor his wife became even par- 
tial owners in the West Side Street Railway until 1876, and 
not until six years later did he undertake the management of 
that corporation. His business affairs had nothing to do with 
his entrance into politics, and he did not remain in politics 
in their interest. Quite apart from the evident fact that any 
benefit which his business could derive from his political con- 
nection would only be incidental, no one who understands 
the sort of a man Mark Hanna was can believe for an instant 
that his interest in politics could be derived from any source 
outside of itself. 

A, He could no more help being interested in politics, and in 
expressing that interest in an eager effort to elect men to 
office, than he could help being interested in business, his family 
or his food. ■ His disposition was active, sympathetic and ex- 
pansive ; and it was both uncritical and uncalculating. He 
accepted from his surroundings the prevailing ideas and modes 
of action. He went into business because business was the 
normal career for a good American. The selection of both his 
dominant and his subordinate business interests was influ- 
enced, as we have seen, more by personal motives than by any 
intention of making a large fortune. In the same way he went 
into politics, because politics was the other primary activity 
demanded of him by his local surroundings. Under prevail- 
ing conditions it was an inevitable way of asserting himself 
for a man who had an instinctive disposition towards an ex- 
pansive all-round life — so far as such a life could be reached 
in action. He could no more have entered or remained in politics 
merely from a calculating motive, good or bad, than he could 
have planned to become a poet. 

He went into business partly as a bread-winner and partly 
because it took business to keep him busy. He went into poli- 
tics as a citizen. The motive, in so far as it was conscious, 
was undoubtedly patriotic. That he should wish to serve 
his country as well as himself and his family was rooted in his 
make-up. If he proposed to serve his country, a man of his 
disposition and training could do so only by active work in 



114 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

party politics. Patriotism meant to him Republicanism. Good 
government meant chiefly Republican government. Hence 
the extreme necessity of getting good Republicans elected, 
and the absolute identity in his mintl and in the minds of most 
of his generation between public and party service. 

Mark Hanna differed from the majority o£ successful business 
men of his generation in that he continued to live up to his 
conviction of the identity between active personal participa- 
tion in party politics and public service. During the sev- 
enties and eighties successful business men were becoming so 
much absorbed in making money that their participation in 
politics was ceasing to be active and personal. The work which 
the}' formerly did in politics was being more and more taken 
over by professional politicians. But there was a minority 
of business men who never consented to any such division of 
labor. They continued to participate in active political work, 
and to proclaim by their behavior that business men had no 
right to shirk or shift their share of personal political responsi- 
bility. Among them was Mr. Hanna ; and in remaining true to 
the close association between business and politics, he was loyal 
to a time-honored and fundamental American tradition. Once 
more he was proving himself to be the descendant of the 
pioneer who made no sharp distinction between private and 
public interest, and who testified to the coincidence between 
private aiid public interest by the association in their own lives 
between business and political activity. 

A number of men familiar vdth the political annals of Cleve- 
land during the seventies corroborate ]\Ir. iSIyers in the assertion 
that a part of Mark Hanna's early political activity consisted in 
fighting the growing political power of the petty "bosses." He 
used to go to the business men of his ward individuall}', and try 
to persuade them that they ought to be more activelj'' interested 
in local municipal affairs — that they, the taxpayers, and not the 
ward heelers, should rule the city. Little by little he organized 
the business men in his neighborhood, and for awhile he had the 
local "bosses" of the West Side more or less under control. 
In this connection it should be remembered that the first phase 
of the municipal reform movement all over the country took 
just this form of an attempt to renew the interest of business 



BEGINNINGS IN POLITICS 115 

men in local politics; and the fact that Mark Hanna himself, 
like most business men, may have had certain private interests 
mixed in with his opposition to the local "boss&s" must not 
blind us to the meaning of his early campaign for reform. As 
a business man and an active politician he was fighting the 
fact that business and politics were being specialized and 
divided. He was seeking to escape from the awkward alter- 
native of being obliged either to fight the political mercenaries 
or to conciliate them. 

Now Mark Hanna was not by disposition a reformer. He 
was a man of action, whose peculiar strength was to consist 
in his thorough grasp of all the conditions, human as well as 
material, underlying immediately successful achievement. 
A reformer, even when he is not essentially a critic and a 
man of words, is obliged to subordinate action to preliminary 
agitation. Mark Hanna was not made to fight deeply rooted 
political abuses. He was not made to follow for long any path 
which did not lead to a visible and accessible goal. He soon 
abandoned his fight against the local "bosses," and eventually 
he came to accept their cooperation as a condition of practical 
political achievement. But his alliance with the professional 
politicians never amounted to fusion. Both his methods and 
purposes remained different. He always continued to be the 
business man in politics who was keeping alive m his own 
policy and behavior the traditional association between busi- 
ness and politics, between private and public interest, which 
was gradually being shattered by the actual and irresistible 
development of American business and political life. 

In order, consequently, to understand ]Mark Hanna's point of 
departure in politics we must bear in mind (1) that he was an 
industrial pioneer, and instinctively took to politics as well as 
business; (2) that in politics as in business he wanted to ac- 
complish results; (3) that politics meant to him active party 
service ; (4) that .successful party service meant the acceptance 
of prevailing political methods and abuses ; and (5) finall}^ that 
he was bound by the instinctive consistency of his nature to rep- 
resent in politics, not merely his other dominant interest, but 
the essential harmonj^ between the interests of business and 
those of the whole community. 



116 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

In his first public appearance in national, as well as in local, 
politics he was inevitably cast for his one great part of a busi- 
ness man. It occurred during the Garfield campaign in 1880, 
in which he was intensely interested, because the Republican 
candidate was not only from Ohio, but from the vicinity of 
Cleveland. He is stated to have originated the idea of a 
Business Man's Republican Campaign Club, and of organizing 
out of the business men of Cleveland an effective campaign 
instrument. Among other services to the cause the club ar- 
ranged a parade, in which Mark Hanna carried a torch among 
other patriotic and busy partisans. The idea had a great suc- 
cess. Similar clubs were organized in other cities, and aroused 
the interest of business men in the election. It is significant 
that in 1880 business men were first beginning to become 
conscious of their attachment to the Republican party and that 
Mark Hanna was associated with the first advertisement of 
the association. 

Another incident connected with the Garfield campaign tes- 
tifies both to Mr. Hanna's active participation in the work of 
the campaign and to his readiness to rise to an occasion and 
assume a risky responsibility. James A. Garfield's nomina- 
tion had not been cordially greeted by the large faction in the 
party who had supported in the Convention the candidacy of 
General Grant, and who remained sulky after its defeat. This 
very apparent division in the party was a confession of weak- 
ness ; and in order that the secrets of the confessional might ;1 
remain obscure to the public, the party managers organized a 
mass meeting at Warren, Ohio, just to show to the public how 
united such a party could be. Not only was General Grant 
himself to attend, but also Roscoe Conkling from New York, 
Simon Cameron from Pennsylvania, General John A. Logan of i 
Illinois, and other conspicuous Grant Republicans. | 

According to a prearranged plan the different members of 
the party were to meet in Cleveland and then be forwarded to 
Warren by the Erie Railroad. Mark Hanna was put in charge 
of the transportation of the harmonious Republican orchestra, 
and on his own initiative and without consulting anybody he i 
decided to make the gathering useful to the party's candi- 
date as well as to the party. He arranged that the train should 



BEGINNINGS IN POLITICS 117 

return from Warren by way of Mentor, where General Gar- 
field lived, and where he was continually receiving his loyal 
party associates. 

What followed is described by Mr. James H. Kennedy, who 
was reporting the whole affair for the Cleveland Herald. After 
the meeting was over, the harmonious guests were being enter- 
tained at luncheon by Senator Harry B. Perkins in his house at 
Warren. Mr. Hanna called at the house and was shown into 
the dining room. "General," said he, addressing Grant, "it 
has been arranged that we return to Cleveland by way of Mentor, 
and if you propose to stop and see General Garfield, we shall 
have to start in a very short time." He made this announce- 
ment in public so as to bring the question straight to the at- 
tention of Grant. Conkling did not want to go to Mentor, 
and when he did not want to do anything he had a way of em- 
phatically looking the part. His brow was like a thunder cloud. 
Grant saw the danger and did not dodge the issue. "We will 
go to Mentor," he said to Mr. Hanna, and Conkling sullenly 
acquiesced. Accordingly the train was stopped at General 
Garfield's town, and the distinguished Republicans paid their 
respects to the standard-bearer, whereby the country was given 
a still more striking proof of the wilful harmony which pre- 
vailed in the Republican party. 

Mark Hanna's interest in the campaign was, of course, in- 
creased by the fact that in May, 1880, he had bought the Cleve- 
land Herald. Thus he provided himself with a costly mirror 
in which his ardent Republicanism was reflected. And in 
those days Republicanism was very ardent and very inno- 
cent — particularly when the Republican candidate lived in 
one's native state, not far from one's home town. On the day 
following Garfield's election the Herald printed in great- 
pica type, as an appropriate leading editorial upon that glori- 
ous event, a whole psalm of praise and thanks to the Lord : ^ 
"The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind ! The Lord loveth the ^ 
righteous !" 

During the years immediately following the election of Gen- 
eral Garfield the range of Mark Hanna's political interests 
gradually broadened. He became a local political leader of 
importance, and evidently had some influence upon the party 



118 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

nominations for city and county offices. He had ceased to fight 
the machine and had become one of its allies and supporters. 
It was the period of his ownership of the Herald and of his 
management of the West Side Street Railway; and both of 
these interests helped to involve him more and more in politics. 
In the spring of 1883 George W. Gardner was nominated for 
mayor by the Republicans. The Leader charged Mr. Hanna 
with responsibility for the nomination, which was considered 
undesirable for no other reason, apparently, than the candi- 
date's association with the owner of the Herald; and Mr. 
Gardner's election was consequently fought with bitterness, 
and finally with success, by Mr. Cowles. It was one among a 
long series of factional fights among Cleveland Republicans, 
the result of which frequently cut entirely away the small 
Republican majority in the city. 

During these years, also, Mark Hanna was assuming for the 
first time a certain importance in state politics. His services 
during the Garfield campaign and his liberal contributions to 
campaign funds designated him for recognition at the hands of 
the party. Mr. George W. Gardner states that he suggested 
Mr. Hanna's name to the state committee as a member of the 
important subcommittee on finance. Mr. Hanna was named 
at the same time as Charles Foster, with whom he was closely 
and cordially associated in politics. Mr. Gardner adds that 
Mr. Hanna at first objected strongly to giving as much time 
to state politics as the position demanded, but finally allowed 
himself to be persuaded. He served with success, because 
his standing as a business man made him a good collector of 
campaign funds. Thereafter he remained in more or less 
constant association with the state committee. 

The range of his political activity increased, however, very 
slowly, and so did his importance as a local political leader. 
His status in politics was merely that of a man who was giv- 
ing most of his time to business, but who could be called upon 
for certain services to his party. He did not offer himself 
for public office, and apparently he had no political ambition — 
except his usual ambition of becoming a leader among the men 
associated with him in any undertaking. This period of his in- 
terest in politics may be compared to the part of his business 



BEGINNINGS IN POLITICS 119 

career which antedated his entrance into the firm of Rhodes 
& Co. It was the experimental period, during which he had 
not come to reaUze either what he wanted in politics or what 
were the ways and means of attaining success in this less 
familiar region. 

His peculiar success in business had been due largely to the 
formation of a group of loyal and permanent human relation- 
ships. His subsequent success in politics was to be due largely 
to the creation of similar ties; and the time had not yet come 
when the really helpful and permanent ties could be formed. In 
the meanwhile the enmities which he had already made in poli- 
tics were perhaps even more conspicuous than the friendships. 
His lack of diplomacy, his indifference to popularity and his \t 
plain-dealing had more serious results in politics than they had 
in business. His fights with the petty "bosses," and his aggres- 
sive methods and ways had raised in his path a number of 
aggrieved men, who, like Mr. Cowlcs, were eager to oppose 
any candidate or measure which he advocated, and who were 
already describing him as a "boss" unscrupulously grasping 
after money and power. These personal enemies in his own 
bailiwick were a source of embarrassment to him throughout the 
whole of his political career. His political enemies were more 
than outweighed by his political friends, but the political friend- 
ships of these early years were, with one or two exceptions, not 
his permanent political friends. He had still to make a num- 
ber of mistakes and failures before he knew what he could do in 
politics, and with whom he wanted to cooperate. 



.\ 



CHAPTER XII 

TWO CONVENTIONS AND THEIR RESULTS 

The Republican National Convention of 1884 was the occasion 
of Mark Hanna's first plunge into the deeper waters of national 
politics. He was a delegate to that Convention, and the way in 
which his election was secured reveals the effect of the personal 
relations which he had already formed in politics. After be- 
ing defeated by his enemies he was at the last moment saved 
by his friends. If he had not been saved by his friends and had 
failed to attend the Convention as delegate, his whole subse- 
quent political career might have been different. 

In the spring of 1884 ]\Ir. Hanna offered himself to the Repub- 
licans of Cleveland as a candidate for delegate to the National 
Convention. There were two delegates to be elected, and there 
were besides himself two candidates in the field. One of them 
was his redoubtable opponent, Mr. Edwin Cowles of the Leader, 
who needed no other motive for coveting the honor than a 
desire to prevent Mr. Hanna from winning it. The other was 
Mr. A. C. Hord, who was put up as the particular candidate of 
the young Republicans of Cleveland. The young Republi- 
cans proved the quality of their youth by triumphantly 
naming Mr. Hord as the first delegate to the Convention. 
There remained a second seat to be divided between the two 
other candidates. The contest was bitter, because the rivalry 
between the two newspapers, as well as lively personal feelings, 
were involved. But the Herald and its owner were always 
being beaten by the Leader and its owner. Mr. Cowles was 
elected by a considerable majority. 

In relation to this contest, Mr. David H. Kimberley, of whom 
we shall hear more later, tells the folloA\'ing story. Mr. Kim- 
berley owned a flour and feed store on the West Side in Cleve- 
land, but he was more of a politician than a merchant. For 
years he had been a member of the Republican County Com- 

120 



TWO CONVENTIONS AND THEIR RESULTS 121 

mittee, and he had such a wide circle of ^oHtical acquaintance- 
ship that he was a useful canvasser. Early in the spring of 1884 
he was summoned both by Mr. Cowles and Mr. Hanna, each of 
whom wanted his help in getting elected delegate. As there were 
two delegates as well as two candidates, Mr. Kimberley saw no 
reason why he should not work for both men. He started out 
cheerfully to do so. Not long after Mr. Cowles again sent for 
him, and asked him if it were true that he was working for both 
candidates. Mr. Kimberley replied in the affirmative, and de- 
fended his action on the ground that inasmuch as two dele- 
gates were to be chosen, the interests of any two candidates 
were not mutually exclusive. Mr. Cowles did not agree with 
him. "You caimot serve two masters," he said ; and added, "I 
understand you are a candidate for County Treasurer." Mr. 
Kimberley replied that he was. "Well !" he exclaimed, and his 
tone and manner showed Mr. Kimberley what to expect. Mr. 
Kimberley was placed in a difficult position. Both of the can- 
didates controlled Republican newspapers, and he could not 
afford to incur the enmity of either. He went to Mr. Hanna 
and confided his troubles. "Go ahead and do what you can 
for Cowles," said Mr. Hanna, "and after he is out of the way do 
the best you can for me !" So Mr. Kimberley returned to the 
Leader office and assured Mr. Cowles that he would work 
for him and him alone until his election was secure. But Mr. 
Cowles was still suspicious and insisted that a reporter of the 
Leader be sent to the district convention from Mr. Kimber- 
ley's ward so that he could keep an eye on the proceedings. 
In Mr. Kimberley's opinion Mr. Hanna was too generous to 
force him to take sides in a personal quarrel and so to injure 
his political prospects. 

The defeat which Mr. Hanna suffered in the local primaries 
was only the prelude to a greater victory. When the state 
Convention met in Cleveland his friends rallied to his support ; 
and his services to the state organization stood him in good 
stead. He was assured that if he would be a candidate for 
delegate-at-large, he would obtain sufficient local and general 
support to secure his election. Apparently both Sylvester T. 
Everett, then a man of some political importance, and George W. 
Gardner had something to do with his candidacy and with his 



122 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

subsequent election. But he did not obtain the office without 
a spirited contest ; and the opposition was led by his personal 
enemies in his own city. Something more, however, than per- 
sonal motives were involved in the contest. Mark Hamia was 
known to favor the nomination of John Sherman as Republican 
candidate for the presidency. The Convention and the Ohio 
Republicans whom it represented were split between James G. 
Blaine and Sherman, so that it sent to Chicago a divided dele- 
gation. Mr. Hanna was supported by the delegates from Cin- 
cinnati and others favorable to Sherman. The delegates favor- 
able to Blaine nearly all voted against him. 

In the Convention of 1884 Mr. Hanna first came into practical 
political association with two men who in very different ways 
were to have a profound effect upon his subsequent life. Two 
of the delegates-at-large from Ohio were William McKinley, Jr., 
and James B. Foraker — both of them young men whose careers 
were very much in the ascendant. McKinley must have been 
already known to Mr. Hanna, because he was prominent in a 
part of the state adjacent to Cleveland, in which Mr. Hanna 
operated coal mines. Foraker hailed from Cincinnati and 
may not have been known to Mr. Hanna except by reputation. 
Nevertheless, when the Convention was over, it was Foraker 
rather than McKinley with whom Mr. Hanna had entered into 
more intimate relations. 

A superficial reason for the intimacy which grew up between 
Mr. Foraker and Mr. Hanna after the Convention may be 
traced to their joint support of John Sherman's candidacy and 
McKinley's support of Blaine. But in all probability this 
difference of opinion did not cause any alienation between Mr. 
Hanna and Mr. McKinley. Sherman was the latter's second 
choice ; and Sherman's name was presented to the Convention 
more as a public tribute to Ohio's greatest statesman than with 
any expectation of success. Sherman was much more seriously 
supported and made a much better showing in the Conven- 
tions of 1880 and of 1888 than in that of 1884. McKinley was 
rather for Blaine than against Sherman, and Foraker, as the 
event proved, was really about as much for Blaine as was Mc- 
Kinley. 

The delegation from Ohio was divided almost in half. Twenty- 



TWO CONVENTIONS AND THEIR RESULTS 123 

two out of the forty-six delegates voted for Gr-neral Powc;ll 
Clayton, the Blaine candidate for chairman. On the first 
ballot twenty-one votes from Ohio went to Mr. Blaine against 
twenty-five for her "favorite son." Mr. Sherman's name at- 
tracted only five additional supporters from all the rest of the 
country. Subsequently he did even worse. The division in 
the delegation from his own state made the support of Sherman 
look Platonic. The opponents of Mr. Blaine made frantic 
efforts to concentrate all the "dark horse" and "favorite son" 
delegates on any available candidate, including Mr. Sherman, 
but all to no effect. Blaine was unquestionaVjly the choice of 
a majority of the PtepuVjlican voters and would have been 
nominated on the first ballot, had not President Arthur h)een 
able to concentrate all the Southern delegates on himself. 
As it was, the supporters of most of the "favorite sons " were 
merely waiting for a good chance to board the Blaine triumphal 
car. 

Certain of the supporters of Mr. Sherman in Ohio were a.s- 
suredly practising in their owti minds a spectacular yielding to 
the magnetism of Mr. Blaine's personality. Mr. Foraker made 
the speech, placing John Sherman's name before the Convention ; 
but in this verj' utterance one may discern verVjal vistas look- 
ing toward a victorious waving plume. After the third ballot 
the magnetic attraction proved to be irresistible. Mr. Foraker 
made a sudden h)ut apparently premature and unsuccessful 
attempt to carry the Convention by acclamation for Blaine. 
The nomination nevertheless went to Mr. Blaine on the fourth 
ballot — chiefly Vjecause Illinois and the entire delegation from 
Ohio rallied to his name. 

Probably the result was not much more of a disappointment 
to Mr. Hanna than it was to Mr. Foraker ; Vjut he was none 
the less earnest in his advocacy of John Sherman's nomination. 
It represented on his part a genuine and a positive choice. He 
did not favor Sherman because he objected seriously to the 
nomination of Blaine. The reasons which made Mr. Blaine 
so obnoxious to the independents carried little weight with Mr. 
Hanna ; and there was much about Mr. Blaine's personality 
and career which might well have had a strong attraction for a 
man of his wilful and adventurous disposition. On the other 



124 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

hand Mr. Sherman's personaHty was distinctly and notori- 
ously deficient in warm and sympathetic qualities. If Mr. 
Hanna favored and continued to favor John Sherman as the 
Republican nominee for the presidency, he must have been 
and was acting in obedience to unusually strong instinctive 
preferences. 

Mark Hanna favored John Sherman's nomination because 
of two reasons very different one from the other, but closely 
associated in his mind. In the first place Mr. Sherman hved in 
Ohio and at this time Mr. Hanna was not likely to be interested 
in any candidate who lived anywhere else. His anchorage 
in politics as in business was local and personal. Distant stars, 
like Mr. Blaine, no matter how luminous, did not fascinate him. 
He could not bestow his allegiance on any leader with whom 
he was not by way of being personally intimate ; and he could 
not support such a leader for the presidency unless the latter's 
public career aroused his warm approval. For the presidency 
as an office he had an almost superstitious respect. For Mr. 
Sherman as a statesman he had an unequivocal admiration. As 
a business man he understood how much Mr. Sherman had con- 
tributed towards the adoption by the government and the carry- 
ing out of a sound financial policy, and how valuable the ser- 
vice was. No man in the country was better equipped for 
the presidential office by varied and prolonged legislative and 
administrative experience, and no man was better entitled 
to it on the record of his public life. That Ohio should possess 
a statesman eminently qualified for the presidency but denied 
as yet the opportunity of being a candidate was more than un- 
fortunate; it was unjust. His national patriotism and his 
local pride were both aroused by the project of placing so emi- 
nent a man in so high an office. Thereafter the idea fermented 
in his mind. 

In Mr. Hanna's life one step along a line of natural self- 
expression always led to another. His attendance at the 
Convention of 1884 sharpened his relish for politics and re- 
sulted directly in the formation of new personal political 
ties. He entered immediately into very close relations with 
Mr. James B. Foraker. In 1884 Mr. Foraker was considered 
to be the ablest and most promising of the younger Repub- 



TWO CONVENTIONS AND THEIR RESULTS 125 

licans of Ohio. He was recognized as a very effective stump 
speaker and as an ingenious and forcible official pleader for the 
nominees and policy of his party. He had no superior in the 
art of pursuading Republican conventions of the truth of Re- 
publican principles, the desirability of Republican policies, the 
impeccability of Republican administrations, and of the ability 
and patriotism of Republican candidates. He had been nomi- 
nated for the governorship in 1883 and although beaten had 
made a favorable impression by the vigor of his canvass. His 
speech nominating John Sherman in the Convention had es- 
tablished his reputation as a party orator, while at the same time 
his eagerness to be converted to the successful candidate had 
been favorably noticed in Augusta, Maine. He paid a visit to 
the party nominee immediately after the Convention and was 
conspicuous on the stump during the campaign. 

As a result of their association at the Convention, Mr. Hanna 
conceived a lively admiration and warm friendship for Mr. 
Foraker. Writing to him as soon as the Convention was over, 
Mr. Hanna said: ''Among the few pleasures I found at the 
Convention was meeting and working with you. I hope soon to 
have the pleasure of renewing the acquaintance under more 
peaceful and comfortable circumstances. I feel that the 
occasion was one which will be a great benefit to you in the fu- 
ture, for I hear nothing but praise for you on all sides, all of 
which I heartily endorse and will hope to be considered among 
your sincere friends." A few days later he adds, "I assure 
you, my dear fellow, it will not be my fault if our acquaintance 
does not ripen, for I shall certainly go for you whenever you are 
within reach." 

As a matter of fact, the acquaintance did ripen very quickly. 
The two men became fast personal and political associates. 
Foraker was renominated for governor in the summer of 
1885 and elected. Mark Hanna served on the executive 
campaign committee and became Mr. Foraker's most effective 
ally in Cleveland and its neighborhood. He made a good 
showing on election day both for the local and the state ticket 
and was very much gratified at the result. Even at this time 
he was prominent enough in state politics to have his own name 
mentioned for the gubernatorial nomination, but he was not 



120 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

tempted by the deceptive glitter of any such prize. He was 
seeking political junver by means of close association with popu- 
lar loaders; and for the time being Mr. Foraker was the man 
of his choice. 

Mr. Haima evidently expected that his association with the 
new Governor would strengthen him as a local political leader. 
In all probability it did. but if so. the help which he received 
from this source was due rather to an increase of prestige than 
any control over the distribution of patronage. He was con- 
sulted about in\portant appointments, but his advice appears 
to have been taken iiiorein relation to small than to large matters. 
His disappointment, however, in obtaining from the Governor 
the recognition which he expected did not aiYect their intimacy 
or his interest in ]Mr. Foraker's political fortunes. The latter 
was renominated and reelected in 1SS7 ; and, if one may judge 
from the tone of their correspondence. Mr. Hanna was as en- 
thusiastic a supporter of Mr. Foraker in 1887 as he had been 
in ISSo. During the second campaign he assisted Mr. Foraker 
with money at a time when, to judge from the warmth of the 
latter's thanks, such assistance was extremely necessary. 

In the meantime ^Ir. Hanna was becoming more of a power in 
local politics. In March, 1SS5. he sold out the Herald, and 
this judicious piece of backshding served at once to allay the 
enmity of ^Ir. Cowles. Thereafter ]\Ir. Hanna was as amiably 
treated by the Leader as was any other good Republican, and 
the personal attacks on him were transferred to the Plain-Dealer. 
Mr. George W. Gardner, who had been defeated for ^Mayor in 
the sprmg of 1SS3, was elected to that office m the spring of 
ISSo ; and ^Ir. Gardner was a close associate of ISIr. Hanna's 
in politics. In the fall of ISSo Mr. Hanna took a lively interest 
in the election of the County Treasurer. The Republican can- 
didate for that office was the Mr. David H. Kimberley, men- 
tioned above ; and Mr. Hanna contributed liberally to his 
campaign expenses. The story of the contribution is so charac- 
teristic that it will be told at length in another connection. It 
was openly charged in the Plain-Dealer at the time that Mr. 
Kimberley was being run chiefly in the interest of the Union 
National Bank. Nevertheless ^Ir. Kimberley was elected by 
an unusually large majority. When he was renominated two 



TWO C0XVENTI0N3 AND THEIR RESULTS ] 27 

years later charges of favoritLsm in the deposit of the county 
funds with the various banks were again rnade; but these 
chargfis rnade no particular mention of the Union National Bank. 
They were denied and did not prevent Mr. Kirnberley's re- 
election. 

During these years Mr. Hanna became probably as influ- 
ential in local politics as any other one man in Cleveland. He 
was accused by the Plain-Dealer of being the local Republi- 
^•an "^X)ss"; but the accusation wa.s merely the natural par-/^ 
tisan abase of a man whose aggressive personality gave ernptia- 
SLs to his actual influence. He was in no s«Lse of the word a 
"boss," although he may have been politically the most in- 
fluential private citizen of Cleveland. Even the foregoing 
statement of his standing is probably an exaggeration. What- 
ever power he posseased in local politics was due, not to the 
building up of a personal machine, but to the fact tPiat l>ehind 
him were the more important basiness men of Cleveland. 
Among the professional politicians he had a few friends and 
many enemies. The politicians needed him, because he was 
personally a generoas contributor and an imexcelled collector 
of funds ; but they never recognized him as their leader. 

The Republican organization in Cleveland was always unruly. 
The success of the party in local campaign.5 was continually 
being compromised by factional fighjts, revolts against rf^rular 
nominations, and unexpected ebullitions of popular indepen- 
dence. In the spring of 1887, for instance, the Republican.s 
nominated, apparently under Mr, Hanna's influence, William 
M. Baj-ne as their candidate for Mayor. Mr. Baj-ne was de- 
scribed to be a verj' honest man, but one who made his living 
out of politics. He proved to be a weak candidate and was 
decisively defeated. 

Later in the same year Mr. BajTie was instrumental in alter- 
ing the nominating machinery' of the Cleveland Republicans in 
a manner which would now be considered rnos-t praiseworthy. 
As a means of stopping the abase of packed caucases a .sj'stem 
of direct primaries was proposed and accepted by the Republican 
votere. The s3.'Htem had originated in Crawford County, 
Penn-sylvania, and was named after its place of origin. Later 
many attempts were made to abolb-h the plan, but thej' were 



128 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

unsuccessful. Mr. Hanna himself came eventually to oppose 
it ; but when it was first introduced he probably approved 
of it. Its sponsor, Mr. Bayne, was so closely associated with him 
that the two men presumably were agreed upon the desirability 
of the reform. It unquestionably served its intended purpose 
of doing away with packed caucuses ; but it made the Republi- 
can party of Cleveland more than ever unruly. 

Whatever advantage Mr. Hanna may have derived from his 
association with Mr. Foraker did not last very long, because 
in the spring of 1888, soon after Mr. Foraker's second inaugura- 
tion, the association itself was broken. Mr. Foraker states that 
the rupture of their personal and political friendship was brought 
about by a disagreement over the distribution of patronage; 
but while there developed a disagreement of this kind, which 
both divided Mr. Hanna from the Governor and brought him 
closer to Mr. McKinley, other causes contributed substantially 
to the break. Before coming, however, to these other and 
more important causes, an account must be given of the 
incident to which Mr. Foraker himself attributes the dissolu- 
tion of their friendship. 

The most lucrative office within the gift of the Governor of 
Ohio at that time was the oil inspectorship — an official who 
was paid by the fees of the oil refineries whose product he in- 
spected, and who had the appointment of deputies to do the 
work throughout the state. When Mr. Foraker was first elected 
both Mr. Hanna and Mr. McKinley had a candidate for the 
job, the former's being Mr. W. M. Bayne and the latter's a 
Captain Smithnight. Mr. Hanna was for a while more energetic 
in opposing Mr. McKinley's candidate than he was in urging 
the claims of his own ; but later he moderated his tone. In 
November, 1885, he wrote to the Governor-elect : " I had a 
call from Major McKinley and his oil inspector candidate. 
The Major is never behind-hand with his claims. I tell him he 
'wants the earth,' and it looks as if I were getting about where 
I generally do in politics — ' left ' with no asset except my . 
reputation of being a good fellow and always accommodating. 
However, I told McKinley I only cared for you in this matter." 
This letter was a prelude to the appointment of Captain Smith- 
night. It looks as if Mr. Hanna had withdrawn his claims, 



TWO CONVENTIONS AND THEIR RESULTS 129 

in order to relieve the Governor from an embarrassing situ- 
ation. 

The same matter came up after Mr. Foraker's second election. 
Mr. McKinley considered himself entitled to Smithnight's 
reappointment. The Governor, who had been dissatisfied 
with his first appointee, was resolved this time to give the office 
to his own part of the state. Mr. Hanna thought the patronage 
should remain in Cleveland, but urged the claims of his own 
candidate, Bayne. Finally the Governor appointed George 
Cox, subsequently the Cincinnati "boss," to the inspectorship, 
without even notifying Mr. Hanna of his intention ; and when 
the deputy-inspectorships came to be passed around, Bayne was 
as usual pushed aside for the benefit of Smithnight. Mr. Hanna 
was so much chagrined that he ran away from Cleveland, and 
he wrote to the Governor that he would scarcely dare to return, 
in case his recommendation was ignored in the matter of another 
deputyship. The whole incident must have been a blow to his 
local political prestige. 

There is no evidence, however, that this incident alone would 
have been sufficient to sever the friendship between the two men. 
At most, it indicated that Mr. Forakerwas looking elsewhere 
for the support which the satisfaction of his political ambition 
required. After the incident Mr. Hanna continued to write to 
the Governor in a friendly, almost an affectionate, manner. 
The final break did not take place until after the Convention of 
1888 ; and it was due to disagreements which occurred during the 
meeting of the Convention. While" the complete story of this 
disagreement cannot be told, the substance of it, which concerns 
Mr. Foraker's attitude towards the campaign on behalf of John 
Sherman's nomination, is well known and not at all obscure. 

Mark Hanna's conviction that John Sherman could and 
should be nominated and elected to the presidency had not been 
shaken by the poor showing made by his candidate in the Con- 
vention of 1884, The result of the election of that year con- 
firmed his belief in the desirability of Mr. Sherman's nomination 
in the interest of party success. Immediately after the defeat 
of James G. Blaine he had written to Mr. Foraker : "I feel sure 
now in looking back over the results of the campaign that 
John Sherman would have been the strongest candidate ; and I 



130 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

boliove that he will bo tho strongest man in 18SS.'' The narrow 
margin ami the peculiar oircumstances of Mr. Blaine's defeat 
made it plausible that, if ]\Ir. Sherman had been the candidate 
in 1S84, he would have been elected. 

Throughout the next few years the project of nominating Mr. 
Sherman grew upon JNIr. Hanna. The idea appealed to him 
because of its apparent practicability, because of its peculiar 
desirability, and because the work demanded for its realization 
was suited to his opportunities and abilities. At that time he 
had no ambition or hope of personal preferment. He was a 
business man with a collateral interest in politics. As a busi- 
ness man he could not afford the time for a slow and steady 
climb up the political ladder. Nevertheless he wanted to 
be associated with large political events and achievements. If 
he was going to interest himself in electing other men to ofRce, 
why not the biggest man he knew and the highest office in the 
land? Such a job would be more interesting than electing 
mayors or governors ; and. if successful, he would obtain by 
virtue of the personal association an amount of prestige and 
power which he could not acquire in any other w^ay. 

I do not mean by the foregoing description of Mr. Hanna's 
motives that his work on behalf of Mr. Sherman was merely 
selfish. On the contrary, his motives in this as in the other 
large projects of his life were primarily disinterested. It was 
his disposition to do things for other people. But mixed with 
his disinterestedness was a large amount of ambition — a keen 
desire for personal prestige and power. He seems at this 
time to have reached a fairly definite conclusion that the ful- 
filment of any personal political ambition must be dependent 
upon the contribution, which he could make to the political 
success of men like Foraker or Sherman. He could become a 
national political luminary only by attaching himself to a star 
of the first magnitude and shining by reflected light. In the 
spring of ISSS he wrote to Mr. Foraker and urged the Governor 
to persuade Russell A. Alger to retire in favor of Sherman. 
!Mr. Alger's general position in politics was similar to his own : 
"Can you not, " he said, "persuade Alger, if his strength is not 
encouraging, to go over to Sherman on the second ballot ? Better 
for his future to be prominent in making a candidate than in 



TWO CONVENTIONS AND THEIR RESULTS 131 

leading a forlorn hope. Better be a power with a man like 
Sherman than merely a prominent citizen of Michigan. " He 
might have added from his own point of view "or of Ohio." 

He was actively working on Mr. Sherman's behalf from 1885 to 
1888. Soon after the Convention of 1884 Mr. Sherman told 
Mr. Foraker that he would be glad to make Mr. Hanna's 
acquaintance. A meeting soon followed. Mr. Harma was 
frequently in Washington, and he us/gd these and other oppor- 
tunities to become still better acquainted with Mr. Sherman. 
In 1885, probably owing to the latter's influence, Mr. Hanna 
was appointed by President Cleveland one of the government 
directors of the Union Pacific Railroad.^ By 1887 the two men 
had become intimate enough to correspond freely and to ex- 
change visits between Cleveland and Mansfield. The basis 
of this intimacy undoubtedly was Mr. Hanna's interest in 
Sherman's nomination. As the meeting of the Convention 
approached he gave more and more of his time to the work, and 
he not only contributed liberally to the expenses himself but 
he raised money among his basiness associates. Finally he was 
selected by the candidate as the manager of the campaign and 
as Mr. Sherman's personal representative at the Convention; 
but although almost all of Mr. Sherman's supporters approved 
of the selection, it was made practically by Mr. Hanna himself. 
He was more interested in Mr. Sherman's nomination and elec- 
tion than was any man in the country, Mr. Sherman alone 
excepted ; and that interest had earned him his appointment. 
He had selected himself to be the leader of the Sherman forces 
by virtue of hard, enthusiastic and competent work. 

A united delegation from Ohio was practically assured from 
the start. The President being a Democrat, there was no 
Republican candidate backed by the administration ; and James 
G. Blaine, the only man who might have divided the allegiance 
of Ohio, was not allowing the use of his name. The way was 

^ This appointment was an incident of his business, rather than of 
his political, career — although it was of course a recognition of political 
service. His duties as director took a great deal of his time, and his 
knowledge of the coal business resulted in his being placed at the head 
of a committee, which took special charge of the coal interests of the rail- 
road. Its President, Mr. Charles Francis Adams, wrote with the 
warmest praise of his services in this matter to the raUroad. 



132 M.VIU IS ALOXZO HANNA. HIS LIFE AND WORK 

clear, consequent ly. for "favorite sons" throughout theRopubli- 
oiui states. John Sherman was the "favorite son" of Ohio, and 
while he had never aroused very nuieh enthusiasm in the part, 
he had been east for it so often that a very strong man would 
have been required to take it away from him. Moreover, the 
politicians of Ohio had good reason to be united on his behalf, 
beeavise he had apparently a better ohanee for the nomination 
tlian any other one candidate. 

The situation in Ohio presented only one doubtful aspect. 
The partisans of Mr. Sherman, and apparently Mr. Sherman 
himself, began to suspect the good faith of Governor Foraker. 
A number of small matters had served to breed suspicion. Mr. 
Foraker had privately opposed the ii\dorsement of Sherman's 
candidacy by the State Convention of 1SS7, which renominated 
him for governor, and had yielded to the demand only on 
compulsion. The action of some of Mr. Foraker's friends in 
the district conventions in the spring of ISSS had aroused 
uneasiness and criticism, and stirred Mr. Hanna to remonstrate 
with the Governor. If we may judge, however, from the tone 
of Mr. Hanna's letters up to the last moment, he did not share 
in the suspicions of Mr. Foraker's good faith. 

I know of no conclusive evidence to justify these suspicions, 
and for a long time their eflfect remained subterranean. The 
district and state conventions elected a imited Sherman delega- 
tion, and in its proceedings there were no symptoms of any 
lack of harmony. William McKinley. Jr.. Benjamin Butter- 
worth. James B. Foraker and Charles Foster were named dele- 
gates-at-large. ^lark Hanna was sent to the Convention from 
Cleveland together with ^lyron T. Herrick. Mr. Herrick, like 
Mr. Hord in 1SS4. was elected by the young Republicans, and 
Mr. Hanna escaped defeat by only a very narrow margin. 

During the month of May the friction between Senator 
Sherman and Governor Foraker increased. It was openly 
hinted in the newspapers that the Governor was not acting 
loyally, and that consequently he would not be allowed to 
make the speech placing Mr. Sherman's name in nomination. 
The latter's friends feared, or pretended to fear, that like General 
Garfield in ISSO, ^Mr. Foraker would make so eloquent a speech 
nominating Sherman that the Convention would bestow the 



TWO CONVENTIONS AND THEIR RESULTS 1.% 

honor on the advocate- The hints became so explicit that Mr. 
Foraker gave out several interviews stating that he was not a 
candidate either for first or second place on the ticket; but 
v/hether a candidate or not he was thoroughly disgruntled. On 
May 10 he wrote to Mr. Hanna: "I do not like the outlook 
for our cause. It may bf; it is only b<;cau.se no one df^^ms, it 
appropriate to give rne any information aVxjut it. At any rate 
I am wholly ignorant as to Mr. Sherman's plans and wi.shes, 
hopes and prospects." 

Whether or not Mr. Foraker was serioasly con-sidering the 
possible results to himself of the nomination of another candi- 
date, the distrust of Senator Sherman was at lea.st explicable. 
At that time the Governor was at the heigljt of his j>opuIarity 
and power. He had been twice elected Chief Executive of hLs 
state. His ability and his asefulness to the party were generally 
recognized. No other Ohio Republican had apparently &ii rniich 
of a foUo^ving and could look forward to a probably more 
brilliant future. He had, mor^rover, a number of extremely 
zealous friends, who, unlike Mr. Hanna, did not divide their 
allegiance between Foraker and Sherman. It was generally 
expected that an attempt would be marJe to stamp^^de the 
Convention for Blaine ; and if such an attempt were successful 
Mr. Foraker looked like the best possible choice for mcjmd 
place on the ticket — particularly in view of the fact that the 
Democrats had nominated for Vice-President Allen G. TTiurman 
of Ohio. 

With whatever ji^.tification the friction continu^^d to increase, 
and affected the reIation.s between Governor Foraker and Mr. 
Hanna. They were still friendly, and the latter continued to 
^-rite in a cordial and confidential way to the Governor, telling 
about the apparent oV/stacles to Sherman's nomination and 
asking for his assistance in removing them. But Mr. Foraker 
could not be placated by Mr. Hanna. He felt tliat he wa« being 
denied the influence to which his prominence entitled him. He 
resented the choice of Mr. Hanna as leader of the Sherman 
forces and his own relegation to a subordinate position. The 
impression that he was being treated with scant courtesy was 
confirmed by the rooms assigned to him at the hotel in Chicago. 
As quartermaster of the delegation, Mr. Hanna had engaged 



KU MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFK AND WORK 

:uHH>innn)il;itiiM\s nt tlto Cu'ainl rniMfu'. The rmnns si^KH'tinl fi)r 
tl\i^ liOViM-ni>r wcMo on the [\oov :\ho\o \\\c 0\\\o] lu^ulquartors 
insto;ul of ailjoiuini; tluMu; \v1um-ihi|H)u ho \vri>h> to Mr. llaniui 
and [irottv^tod bitterly and indij:;uantly. Mr. Hanna oxplainrd 
at KMi^th the reasons for the assij^nintMit , anil in tlu> laid Mr. 
Koraker aeeepted the arrani^enient and taeitly aekno\\leilt;ed 
he had been hasty. Their tinal e\ehans2;e of let t cms befon^ the 
Convetitiou was more friendly, but niauifostly peace had not 
really been pati'hed np. Mr. llanna winds u[i his last letter with 
the foUowini; sentence, "CuHHl-by, until we n\eet on the battU^ 
field jmd my Ohio comes out victorious." 

^Ir. llanna firmly believed in the probable success of the 
Sherman caudiilacy. anil his anticipations w(M-e far from unreason- 
able. Senator Sherman was tlie most eminent Republican whose 
nan\e was placed formally in nomination. The candidates otTered 
by other states, such as Oepew oi New York, Rusk oi Wisconsin, 
AlgtM- of Michigan. Cresham of Illinois, and Harrison of Indiana, 
had no advantai;e over Sherman in availability, and their titles 
to the niMuination were wholly inferior. The thundercloud 
of a Blaine stampede looked ominmis ; but if that dant^er cmild 
be escaped, it seen\ed like plain sailing. A few days before 
the meeting of the C^'onvention. Mr. llamia gave ti^ the news- 
papers the following numerii'al estin\ate of Sherman's j-trobable 
strength. "We hope," he said, "to have three humlred tlele- 
gates. Two humlred of them will come from the South and the 
remaimler from the West anil lOast. jNIassai'luisetts and Penn- 
sylvania are with us. We shall probably get the entire delega- 
tion from the latter state on the third or fourth ballot. If we 
get Tennsylvania and i>ur other friemls are steailfast, nothing 
can prevent Sherman's nomination. In the sober tlu>ught of 
the ilelegates. he better represents the wishes of the Republican 
party than does any of the otlier candiilates." The phrase 
"sober tiiought" betrays the fact that the supporters of Sher- 
man feared n\ore than anything else a stampede for Blaine. 

When the Convention assembKnl the outlook for Slu^-man 
continued to be favorable. The voting began on Friday. June 
22, and on the first ballot Sherman received 220 votes, which 
was twice as many as his nearest competitor. On the seci>nd 
ballot the number of his supporters ran uj) to 249, certain 



TWO CONVENTIONS AND THEIR RESULTS 135 

accessions having been made in Pennsylvania. But his strength 
never e(juall(;d Mr. Hanna's estimate of .'iOO votes. Massachu- 
setts only gave him 9 out of a total of 28, Pennsylvania 53 out of 
60, Ohio 40, and the rest came from the South. On the sub- 
sequent ballots Mr. Sherman's strength slowly declined. He 
continued to lead his competitors until and including the sixth 
ballot, but in the meantime Benjamin Harrison had been 
gaining steadily. The latter was nominated on the eighth 
ballot, and in selecting him the Convention had nominated the 
next best man to Mr. Sherman. 

The official proceedings of the Convention were tame enough, 
but behind them was a seething caldron of negotiation and 
intrigue. It exhibited at its worst the regular method of 
nominating presidential candidates, because, in the absence 
of a strong popular preference for any one man, free opportunity 
was provided for the use of dubious methods and the action of 
equivocal motives. During the first two days the most active 
subterranean intrigue was being carried on in favor of Blaine ; 
but Mr. Blaine never gave it open and authoritative countenance. 
While a considerable part of the Convention was ready to be 
stampeded, the sentiment in Mr. Blaine's favor was not general 
enough to afTord sufficient body to the project. Until Sunday, 
however, the hopes of the supporters of Mr. Blaine ran high. On 
Sunday they vanished, and the delegates who had been waiting 
for a possible Blaine stampede began really to consider whom 
they could gain most by nominating. 

In spite of the fact that Sherman had Vjeen losing since the 
second ballot, he is said still to have had a fair chance on Sunday. 
New York was hesitating between Harrison and Sherman, 
and it would not have taken much to make the tide set towards 
Ohio. More remarkable was the sudden and unexpected 
strength developed by William McKinley. In spite of the 
fact that he was not a candidate, a few delegates persisted 
in voting for him, and for a while on Sunday his candidacy 
developed a subterranean strength which was never represented 
in the ballot. McKinley was, indeed, assured by the delegates 
of several states that Ohio might get the nomination in his 
person — provided Sherman would withdraw. These repre- 
sentations were telegraphed to Sherman, but he refused to 



136 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

release any of his supporters. Mr. McKinley had protested 
on Saturday during the session of the Convention against the 
unauthorized use of his name. His scrupulous loyalty to Senator 
Sherman was a matter of very favorable comment in Republican 
newspapers after the close of the Convention. 

Senator Theodore E. Burton in his "Life of John Sherman" in 
the series of "American Statesmen" makes the following 
comment on the defeat of Mr. Sherman : "At this Convention 
(1888) the delegation from Ohio was for the first time unanimous 
for him. There were, however, rumors of lack of cordiality 
on the part of some leading members of the delegation, which 
did much to diminish support from other states." One of the 
delegates involved by these rumors was Governor Foraker. He 
was openly accused of treachery by the supporters of Sherman. 
He vehemently and indignantly denied the accusation, but he 
never convinced his colleagues, and his behavior had certain 
dubious aspects. On Sunday an interview with him appeared 
in the newspapers, stating that Sherman was no longer a possi- 
bility, and that on Monday he would vote for Blaine. This 
interview he subsequently repudiated, but if he had not given it 
out, why should it be fabricated? It is significant also that 
members of the Columbus Club had paraded the streets of 
Chicago waving aloft portraits of the Governor and wearing his 
badges on their coat. It is stated that the name of Blaine 
could be read on the other side of these badges. 

These circumstances are mentioned, not because they afford 
conclusive proof that Mr. Foraker was playing a double game, 
but merely to explain the conviction of his colleagues that he 
was not loyal to John Sherman. In his statement Mr. Foraker 
admits the existence of bad feeling in the delegation, but attrib- 
utes it to another cause. He says: "A great many colored 
delegates from the South, as is their custom, had tickets to the 
Convention which they desired to sell. They brought their 
tickets to our rooms at the hotel, and Mr. Hanna, in the presence 
of us all, bought them. I protested against such methods, saying 
that it would bring scandal on the entire delegation and hurt 
Sherman's cause. Mr. Hanna and I had a spirited discussion 
over the matter, and it resulted in my leaving the rooms and 
seeking apartments on another floor." There is some truth 



I 



TWO CONVENTIONS AND THEIR RESULTS 137 

in the foregoing statement. Other members of the Convention 
state that Mr. Hanna had in his trunk more tickets to the 
Convention than he could have obtained in any way save by 
their purchase from negro delegates. Such practices were 
common at the time ; but they were indefensible, and if they 
evoked a protest from Mr. Foraker, he deserves credit for the 
protest. The split in the delegation must, however, be traced to 
a wholly different cause. 

Rightly or wrongly, not only Mr. Hanna, but the other leading 
members of the delegation believed that Mr. Foraker was 
secretly hostile to Senator Sherman's nomination, and that this 
hostility ruined Mr. Sherman's chance of success. The inti- 
mate association between the two men ended in June, 1888. 
After the Convention they exchanged a few acrimonious letters 
in respect to the distribution and settlement of the expenses 
incurred at Chicago. Their correspondence ceased. It was not 
renewed for many years, and then only on rare occasions and 
for purposes in which, as the two Senators from Ohio, they had 
a joint official interest. 

The story of Mark Hanna's friendship with Mr. Foraker and 
its rupture has been told at some length, because the incident 
did much to determine the course of Mr. Hanna's subsequent 
political career. In case he had remained intimately associated 
with Mr. Foraker, he might never have become so intimately 
associated with Mr. McKinley. Mr. Foraker himself ventures 
the opinion that their break resulted indirectly in the nomina- 
tion of McKinley. However that may be, the continuation of 
his intimacy with Mr. Foraker would probably have prevented 
him from attaching himself thereafter so ardently and so 
exclusively to Mr. McKinley's political advancement. The 
rupture of his first political friendship did more, however, 
than clear the path for the formation of the second. His more 
intimate association with Mr. McKinley was in a measure the 
immediate result of his break with Mr, Foraker. 

The behavior of Mr. McKinley at the Convention made a 
deep impression on Mr. Hanna. The essential fabric of his 
own life consisted of personal relationships. He instinctively 
placed a higher value on loyalty than on any other moral 
quality. He could overlook almost any human failing, except 



138 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

disloyalty. Erroneously or not, he considered that Mr. Foraker 
had been secretly hostile to the candidacy of Senator Sherman. 
He knew that Mr. McKinley had been scrupulously faithful 
under a peculiarly severe and unexpected personal temptation. 
In subsequent conversations about McKinley, he often referred 
with the utmost admiration to Mr. McKinley's refusal to con- 
sider the possible purchase of the highest American political 
honor by the desertion of the candidate to whom he was 
pledged — even when that candidate had lost all chance of 
success. Thus the new political friendship was in a sense 
founded on the ruins of the old. 

The rupture with Mr. Foraker resulted, not merely in the 
creation of new friendships, but also in the creation of new en- 
mities. He and the Governor, in ceasing to be friends, became 
active opponents. Thereafter the Republican party of Ohio was, 
until Mr. Hanna's death, divided into two factions. On Mr. 
Hanna's side were ranged the whole group of Republicans who 
had been interested in Senator Sherman's nomination. It 
contained Mr. Sherman himself, Mr. McKinley, Benjamin 
Butterworth, Charles Foster and Mark Hanna. On the other 
side, Mr. Foraker was the only Republican of ability and prom- 
inence. He was a proud, self-contained and self-confident man, 
whose nature it was to play a lone hand. He himself states 
that he never afterwards had a political ally, with whom he was 
as closely associated as he had been for a while with Mr. Hanna. 
It speaks well for his skill in political management that he should 
have been able to hold his own against such a combination of 
popularity, effective power and political ability as Mr. Mc- 
Kinley and Mr. Hanna eventually constituted. 

There resulted one of the most extraordinary factional fights 
offered by the history of American politics. Its existence was 
notorious. There was great bitterness of feeling. The two 
factions frequently came to open blows in the primaries, in the 
state conventions and in the legislature. Yet it was rarely, if 
ever, carried so far as to imperil party success. From 1888 until 
1904 the Republicans of Ohio were victorious with one exception, 
in all the state and national elections. In spite of charges and 
countercharges of treachery on election day, the two factions 
kept their fight on the whole within the party and presented 



TWO CONVENTIONS AND THEIR RESULTS 139 

a sufficiently united front to the Democrats. Neither of them 
felt strong enough to push the disagreement to a finish and by 
risking a Democratic victory to endanger their own political 
plans as well as those of their adversaries. They subordinated 
their personal quarrels for the most part to Republican success. 
They spoke during the campaign from the same platforms, 
and they divided the offices. Nevertheless at almost every 
critical moment of Mr. Hanna's subsequent career he was em- 
barrassed and at times almost defeated by the personal ill 
feelings consequent on his rupture with James B. Foraker. 



CHAPTER XIII 

POLITICAL FRIENDS AND ENEMIES 

The defeat in the Convention of 1888 of the presidential 
candidacy of John Sherman was a severe disappointment to Mark 
Hanna and a source of the utmost personal exasperation. He 
had labored long and well for a worthy and practicable political 
object — only to fail at the last moment from an apparently 
unnecessary cause. The experience made a deep impression 
upon him. It constituted, as we have seen, the foundation of 
life-long political friendships and enmities. Thereafter his 
career in politics assumed, not a new direction, but a new 
emphasis, which proved to be salutary and edifying. 

The idea of nominating and electing William McKinley to > 
the presidency of the United States was born of those exasperat- 
ing days at the Chicago Convention. There is no documentary 
proof of the truth of this statement, but his intimate friends 
date from this moment the conception of the idea, and the 
supposition is confirmed by a sufficient array of circumstantial I 
corroboration. The circumstances and results of John Sher- 
man's defeat both cleared the path for an exclusive devotion i 
to the political advancement of William McKinley and made i 
such an expenditure of his time and energy look eminently ' 
practicable. 

Mark Hanna had made up his mind to nominate, if possible, 
a political leader from Ohio as the Republican candidate for 
the presidency. He was a man distinguished by great tenacity 
of purpose. The defeat of Sherman did not make him abandon i' 
the idea ; but it taught him that John Sherman could never be i 
the vehicle of its fulfilment. Thereafter that statesman had I 
joined in Mr. Hanna's mind the majority of his fellow-country- • 
men in becoming a presidential impossibility. But the same | 
series of exciting incidents which had extinguished the fires of f 
Mr. Sherman's candidacy had unexpectedly made McKinley 
an obvious presidential possibility. A great name, a long and t 

140 



POLITICAL FRIENDS AND ENEMIES 141 

eminent career and a lot of hard work had not availed to place 
Sherman much nearer the nomination than McKinley had been 
with no work at all and a comparatively modest career and 
reputation. The contrast and the lesson were obvious. They 
became a matter of frequent contemporary comment in the 
newspapers, and Mark Hanna had more reason than any one 
else to have them stamped on his mind. 

Just at the moment when Sherman's star was paling and 
McKinley's waxed brighter, Mr. Hanna had broken the only 
. personal tie in politics which might have interfered with 
an interest in McKinley's career. James B. Foraker was 
transformed from a friend into an opponent under conditions 
i which, erroneously or not, persuaded Mr. Hanna to place a 
higher value on McKinley's friendship than on Mr. Foraker's. 
McKinley took the place both of Sherman and Foraker in the 
hierarchy of Mr. Hanna's political and personal relationships. 
He became both the intimate friend with a political future of 
great promise and the available presidential candidate. There- 
after the determination to make Mr. McKinley President of 
the United States and in the meantime to promote his political 
advancement in every possible way became Mark Hanna's 
dominant interest in politics. 

The friendship between the two men had grown slowly and 
naturally. Whatever the occasion of their first meeting, they 
had become intimate very gradually. During the years of Mr. 
Hanna's association with Mr. Foraker, he and Mr. McKinley, 
although coming from the same part of the state, had a different 
set of political associates and different candidates for important 
state offices. I have quoted a letter of Mr. Hanna's to the 
Governor, in which he complains of what he considers the 
exorbitance of the "Major's" demands for recognition. But 
Mr. Hanna's increasing activity in politics brought them into 
more and more frequent relations, and it may be that before 
lihe Convention the process of substituting McKinley for Foraker 
IS the most valued of Mr. Hanna's political friends had already 
nade headway. The Governor and the Congressman were in 
iome measure political rivals, because they were the two rising 
Flepublican leaders of Ohio whose careers might conflict ; and 
;n any event a strong interest in the political career of one of 



142 MAKCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

them would have interfered with any but a subordinate interest 
in the career of the other. The close political and personal! 
association which began after the convention of 1888 between Mr. 
Hanna and Mr. McKinley blossomed suddenly, but its roots 
had been slowly growing for a period of over ten years. 

The startling and unforced growth of McKinley's presi- 
dential candidacy in the Convention of 1888 was due probably; 
to his prominence as an advocate of high protection. Hisi 
amiable disposition and his winning demeanor undoubtedly; 
contributed to his popularity, and the fact that he hailed from a: 
centrally situated state like Ohio contributed to his avail- 
ability. But the chief reason why a certain number of Re- 
publicans turned almost instinctively towards him was duei 
to his association with the policy of protecting American] 
manufacturers to the limit. President Cleveland's message ini 
December, 1886, and his renomination had made it certaini 
that the campaign of 1888 would be fought and decided on 
the tariff issue. The Republicans were glad to accept the 
challenge and turned naturally towards the man who was 
considered to be the ablest advocate of the party's policy. 

Major McKinley had been a Representative in Congress from 
the Mahoning Valley district since 1877, one term only excepted. 
He had gradually secured the confidence of his party associates 
by his tact, his attractive personality, his industry and his 
ability as a speaker. His congressional reputation had beeni 
associated almost from the start with an advocacy of high pro-' 
tection. When Garfield retired from the Ways and Means Com- 
mittee, before his nomination to the presidency, McKinley; 
became the member of that body from Ohio. He had a good 
deal to do with framing the tariff act of 1883, and increased his 
reputation during the debates on that measure. In the Re 
publican Convention of 1884 he was chairman of the Committee 
on Resolutions and was associated with the writing of the party 
platform. During the succeeding years he added to his fame 
by his able opposition to the several proposals introduced by 
Democrats, looking towards tariff revision. He became in fact 
the leading Republican protectionist debater, and when the 
Republican Convention assembled in 1888 with a fight on the 
tariff ahead, McKinley had become the inevitable man for 

I 

.» 



L POLITICAL FRIENDS AND ENEMIES 143 

the chairmanship of the Committee on Resolutions. The 
definite establishment of the tariff issue as the dividing line 
between the two parties was bound to increase the political 
prestige of the man who had earned recognition as the most 
conspicuous exponent of the high protectionist idea. If Mr. 
Hanna had not possessed a hundred other reasons for a peculiar 
interest in McKinlej^, the latter's association with protectionism 
might in itself have been sufficient to create it. 

A coalescence can be plainly traced at this point between Mark 
Hanna's dominant personal political interest and his dominant 
impersonal political interest. He had always represented in 
politics the point of view of a business man ; and now for the 
first time a national campaign was about to be waged on an 
issue involving in his opinion the business prosperity of the 
country. The appearance of such an issue was a challenge to 
him to become more than ever interested in active political 
work — particularly in view of the fact that every victory of 
protection was a contribution towards the possible victorious 
candidacy of his personal friend, Major McKinley. 

Previous to the campaign of 1888 the issue between the 
parties had never been definitely made on the tariff. The 
Democrats had shown a strong leaning towards tariff reform, 
, but there had always been a minority of protectionist Democrats. 
.The great majority of Republicans had been extreme protec- 
jtionists, but until the secession of the independents in 1884, 
there had always been a minority of tariff reform Republicans. 
President Cleveland's message in 1886 had established the 
, issue ; and his plea for revision was based upon arguments which 
could not be ignored. Quite apart from any economic theory 
for or against protection, the existing tariff was piling up a sur- 
plus in the Treasury which for various reasons could no longer 
be used, as in the past, to reduce the national debt. Its accumu- 
lation was an embarrassment to the money market and an 
unnecessary drain on the economic resources of the country. 
Some revision of the tariff was necessary, and a revision in the 
1 direction of lower duties looked like the only possible way of 
getting rid of the surplus. The Democrats, however, advo- 
cated lower duties, not merely to reduce the income of the 
government, but because they proposed to destroy protectionism 



144 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK | 

as the American fiscal policy. While none of the measures of 
revision introduced by them were framed on the basis of a 
tariff for revenue only, their arguments were based upon the 
intrinsic desirability of free trade and the iniquity of protection- 

^^ Business men in any way associated with protected manufac- 
turing industries rallied with enthusiasm and determmation. 
to the fiscal policy of the Hepublican party. Among themi 
Mark Hanna was not the least enthusiastic and determmed., 
He had never known any but a protectionist fiscal system. He; 
accepted it as the foundation, not merely of American industrial! 
expansion, but of industrial safety. Depending as he always 
did upon his personal experience as his guide, he identified pro- 
tectionism with the traditional American fiscal system — the. 
system which sought to give the American producer exclusive^ 
control of the home market, and which practically allowed thei 
beneficiaries of the tariff to draw up the schedules. The seriousi 
attack made upon the system seemed to give him as a represen-i 
tative in politics of the business interest a new duty to perform. 
Certain conditions which he considered essential to business 
prosperity were being threatened by political agitation. Hej 
and other business men must rally to their defence. 

Thus the campaign of 1888 first brought clearly to light an 
underlying tendency in American political and industrial de- 
velopment which until then had remained somewhat obscure. 
Since the Civil War the national economic system had been 
becoming relatively more industrial and relatively less agri- 
cultural The increasing proportion of the population depend- 
ent on industry lived, not merely in New England and m the 
Middle States, but throughout the Middle West. The rapid 
growth of industry had been partly dependent upon legislative 
encouragement. It had given to the people interested m the; 
protected industries a reason for demanding helpful legislation 
and a reason for fearing adverse legislation. This encourage- 
ment moreover, had not taken the form merely of protecting 
manufacturers against foreign competition. The large business 
interests of the country had been encouraged, also, by the ut- 
most laxity in the granting of corporate privileges and the ut^ 
most freedom from state and national administrative regulation. 



POLITICAL FRIENDS AND ENEMIES 145 

There had been a general disposition to grant to the business 
interests what they wanted, because American pubHc opinion 
was substantially agreed upon the desirability in the public 
benefit of the utmost possible stimulation of business activity. 
The result had been to make business vulnerable at a hun- 
dred different points to dangerous political attacks, and thus 
to make business prosperity immediately dependent upon po- 
htical conditions. 

The first serious attack upon the traditional system made by 
a national party was President Cleveland's antiprotectionist 
campaign. The protected industries defended themselves with 
their natural weapons. They subscribed more liberally than 
ever before to the Republican electoral expenses. In 1888 
more money was raised than in any previous national campaign, 
and it was raised more largely from business men. Its abil- 
ity to obtain increased supplies from such sources was a God- 
send to the machine, because the spread of the movement tow- 
ards Civil Service Reform had diminished its collection from 
office-holders, while at the same time the constant increase of 
political professionalism was making electoral campaigns more 
than ever expensive. Large expenditures for political purposes 
thereafter became the rule; and the needs of professional poli- 
ticians, like other parasites, soon increased up to the level of 
their means of subsistence. 

Mark Hanna, as a representative in politics of the business 
interest, was necessarily connected with this increased raising 
and expenditure of money for political objects. The one way 
at that time in which he could fight the political battles of the 
business interests was to provide the men on the firing-line 
with ammunition and food; and that way he took. He be- 
, came one of an auxiliary committee to the Republican National 
Committee whose specific duty it was to solicit campaign 
contributions. 

Mr. Hanna was entitled to ask other Republicans for con- 
tributions because he himself set them a good example. He 
himself had always been a liberal contributor to the funds of 
his party. His own experience had taught him how far the suc- 
cessful conduct of a campaign under American political condi- 
tions depends upon a free expenditure of money. He knew that 



146 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

the expenses of speakers had to be paid, halls rented, literature 
distributed, impecunious candidates helped, the registration 
and the vote pulled' out and the polls watched. He knew that 
much of this work had to be done by men who were accustomed 
to be rewarded, and that they could not all be rewarded at the 
public expense with offices. Some of them had to be employed. 
He knew that the campaign committees were always short of 
funds, and he knew that he could not show a more effective 
practical interest in politics than by helping to pay expenses. 
Whenever he did anything, he did it thoroughly. Probably 
no man in the country contributed more liberally, considering : 
his means, to the war-chest of his party than did Mr. Hanna. 

A political associate describes him as a "cheerful giver."' 
This gentleman, who was a member of the Republican commit- ■ 
tee of Cuyahoga County for twenty-five years, states that Mr. , 
Hanna was the only Republican in the city of Cleveland who 
would voluntarily draw his check for campaign purposes. 
Many of his business associates could be induced by personal I 
solicitation to make contributions, but Mr. Harma never needed I 
to be dunned. He would say to the committee as he handed toj 
them his first contribution: "Boys, I suppose you'll need somee 
money. If you run short, you know where my office is." Dur- 
ing the Garfield campaign he sent four different checks for' 
$1000 each to the State Committee in Columbus; and this 
was merely one incident among a hundred. In the fall of 1887, 
for instance, the local campaign committee of Cuyahoga County 
found itself after election with a debt of $1260 on its hands. 
An attempt was made to collect the money from prominentii 
Republicans, but with no success. One morning several ofi 
the committee were in their room, talking over the futile efforts.^ 
Mr. Hanna came in, and noticing the air of gloom, said: "It, 
looks pretty blue here ! What's the matter ?" They told him,i 
and much to their surprise and joy he sat down at the table and( 
drew his own check for the whole amount. "There," he said^l 
"pay your debts and look cheerful." 

He gave as freely to individual political associates as to com-i 
mittees. Almost all his political friends were at one time od 
another in debt to him. We have already seen that he ren-n 
dered to Mr. Foraker some assistance at a moment when thei 



POLITICAL FRIENDS AND ENEMIES 147 

Governor, at that time a poor man, was really in grave distress. 
He constantly helped McKinley by loans, by taking care of 
notes and by the financing of his friend's campaigns. General 
Charles Grosvenor was another local politician who was very 
much beholden to Mr. Hanna for financial assistance. A friend 
or associate who had any claim at all could depend on him for 
effective help; and sometimes the need of help would be an- 
ticipated and the help rendered without solicitation. 

One salient instance may be specified. The David H. Kim- 
berley whom Mr. Hanna had permitted in 1884 to work for 
Mr. Edwin Cowles rather than himself was nominated shortly 
afterwards for County Treasurer. He was poor, and his asso- 
ciation with Mr. Hanna in politics had not been intimate. 
Shortly after his nomination a young man came to his store and 
left a package containing $500 for campaign expenses, but re- 
fused to divulge the name of the contributor. In a few weeks 
'.another $500 arrived from the same source, and just before 
the day of election an additional $200. The last instalment 
was accompanied by a note, stating that the $1200 could be ^ 
returned after election, — in case Mr. Kimberley were success- 
ful, but that if he were beaten he would never be told of the 
name of the donor. He learned afterwards indirectly that the 
contributions were made by Mark Hanna. Mr. Kimberley 
was elected. When he was about to assume office, he found he 
had to supply a heavy bond and he did not know where to turn 
Jfor his security. He was just coming from the court-house 
where he had been copying the bond with his own hands, when 
he met Mr. Hanna on the street. " What's the matter, Dave ? " 
the latter asked. "You look pretty serious this morning." 
"I am thinking," Mr. Kimberley said, "about my bond as 
County Treasurer. " Mr. Hanna asked for the bond and looked 
it over. "My gracious ! a milHon dollars," he exclaimed; "are 
they ever going to stop hammering you?" Mr. Kimberley 
assured him that it was an exact copy of the bond of the existing 
Treasurer. Mr. Hanna took it, signed it himself, and persuaded 
Bve or six of his well-to-do friends also to sign it. 

I have cited the case of Mr. Kimberley at some length be- 

' !3ause in this particular instance more than one motive may 

have prompted Mr. Hanna. Mr. Kimberley was running for 



148 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

the oflSce of County Treasurer, and Mr. Hanna was building 
up the business of a recently organized bank. The Plain- 
Dealer asserted at the time that there might be some connec- ■ 
tion between Mr. Hanna's interest in Mr. Kimberley and his s 
interest in his bank. If so, no action hurtful to the interests i 
of the county resulted. Mr. Kimberley was reelected and no i 
irregularities were discovered, although his opponents were ' 
ready to pounce upon evidence thereof. But assuming that : 
the help rendered by Mr. Hanna to Mr. Kimberley may have ; 
been prompted by a desire for county deposits, such a motive i 
does not explain the way in which the loan was made. In case 3 
Mr. Kimberley had been defeated, Mr. Hanna did not want t 
him to feel any personal obligation in the matter — an obliga- • 
tion which would have been onerous to a poor man. Mr. . 
Kimberley himself attributed the loan to Mr. Hanna's wish to i 
do a kindness to a fellow-Republican whose means were not 
equal to the expenses of his canvass. 

However we are to regard such an incident, and however 
little we may like the fact that Mr. Hanna and his street rail- 
way company contributed to the expenses of electing council- 
men, it is easy to over-estimate the importance of such incidents. . 
On the whole and in the long run Mr. Hanna did not make his 
political gifts with any intention of buying specific services. 
His political gifts, both to organizations and associates, must be 
considered as prompted partly by the same motives as his 
charitable gifts, both for the encouragement of worthy causes 
and the success of needy persons. As I shall describe in another 
connection Mr. Hanna was an extraordinarily and even a some- 
what indiscriminately generous man. He gave freely and with- 
out close inquiry to anybody or purpose which could fairly \ 
claim assistance. To give and to give without calculation wasj 
one of the dominant impulses of his nature. In a businessis 
transaction he was as keen as another man about getting fivee 
dollars' worth for the expenditure of five dollars ; but any cause( 
or any person which aroused his sympathies or interest wouldc 
unloosen his purse strings and disarm his business scruples. 
His interest in political causes and friends was just as much anr 
expression of his better nature as his interest in charitable causeS'i 
and needy individuals. He spent his money liberally and inno-i'' 



POLITICAL FEIENDS AND ENEMIES 149 

cently in every way which seemed to him worth while ; and, 
of course, pohtics, and in particular Republican party politics, 
were from his point of view extremely well worth while. 

Mr, Hanna's personal liberality and his prominence both as 
a business man and politician tended, however, to make the 
local Republican committees depend on him for a large part 
of their supplies. From being a generous contributor he passed 
by easy gradations into the position of being an able collector 
of campaign funds from his business associates. He had the 
reputation of being a man who could do really effective work 
in eliciting contributions from his fellow Republicans, and this 
reputation was responsible for his selection as financial auxiliary 
to the Republican National Committee of 1888. The political 
managers saw that the tariff issue afforded them an extraor- 
dinarily good opportunity of persuading the manufacturers to 
"give up." Systematic efforts were made to turn the opportu- 
nity to good account. Mr. Hanna's district was northern Ohio. 
He raised money in Cleveland, in Toledo, in the Mahoning 
Valley and in adjacent territory. His collections are said to 
have reached $100,000, all of which went to the National 
Committee. His own personal contribution to the same 
committee was $5000, and he also went to the assistance of 
the county and state committees. 

Although Mr. Hanna's connection with the campaign of 
'■. 1888 was confined to the work of securing contributions, it was 
i necessary to describe at this point the complexion which the 
, general political situation was assuming, and Mr. Hanna's own 
, personal relation thereto. During the Convention and campaign 
[ of 1888 the political forces and tendencies which culminated in 
the campaign of 1896 and which gave opportunity and meaning 
,to Mr. Hanna's subsequent career are for the first time plainly to 
[be distinguished. The idea of nominating McKinley was born 
I contemporaneously with the appearance of the conditions which 
(finally resulted in his nomination, and the man who cherished 
[the personal project became himself the political representative 
of a certain relation between business and politics, implied by 
■these conditions. 

i|i The campaign resulted in the election of Benjamin Harrison, 
but not by any large majority. Mr. Cleveland had a plurality 



150 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

on the popular vote, and the change of a few thousand ballots 
cast in New York and Indiana would have beaten the Republi- 
cans. They succeeded none the less in keeping their majority 
in the Senate and in winning a small majority in the House 
of Representatives, which was subsequently increased by un- 
seating Democrats wherever their elections could be plausibly 
contested. In the winter of 1889 and 1890, when the new Con- 
gress assembled, the Republicans for the first time in many years 
were in complete control of both departments of the General 
Government, and they were committed to the passage of some 
legislation looking towards the reduction of the surplus without 
doing any injury to the protective system. 

In November, 1889, about a week before the meeting of the 
new Congress, Mark Hanna went to Washington. His object 
in making the trip was to help Mr. McKinley in his fight for 
the Speakership of the House, and it is significant that he took 
the first opportunity which offered after the Convention of 1888 
to work on Mr. McKinley's behalf. He put up at the Ebbit 
House and took an active part in the canvass. Mr. William 
H. Merriam states that his part was effective as well as active, 
for he actually converted to Mr. McKinley some votes from 
Minnesota. But his efforts were unavailing. Mr. McKinley's 
competitor for the place, Mr. Thomas B. Reed, was selected by 
the caucus by a majority of one vote. 

Mr. McKinley's defeat was probably beneficial rather than i 
the reverse to his subsequent career. The Speaker appointed I 
him to the chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee, , 
and as chairman he became nominally responsible for the new . 
Republican tariff policy. The bill in which it was embodied 1 
had his name attached to it, which made him in the eyes of the 
country more than ever the most conspicuous exponent of the 
theory and practice of high protection. 

Inasmuch as their victory had been won by a narrow margin, j 
the Republicans would have done well to use it with discretion. ' 
By a few reductions in the existing schedules, they might have 
quieted antitariff agitation for long time without doing any 
injury to the protectionist system. But the beneficiaries of 
the tariff were in the saddle, and they pursued the opposite 
course. Rates were raised all along the line. The surplus was 




Mr. Hanna in the Early Nineties 



POLITICAL FRIENDS AND ENEMIES 151 

abolished largely by the simple device of spending it The rev 
enue was reduced by making duties which were almost pro- 
hibitory entirely so and by abandoning the large income de- 
rived from the duty on raw sugar, which at that time was 
produced only in small quantities in this country Heavy 
duties were levied on many agricultural products which were 
not and could not be imported, except in very small quantities, 
and a successful attempt was made to establish new industries 
such as the manufacture of tin plate and certain grades of silk' 
Finally, since the revenue still promised to be excessive the 
appropriations for pensions and for other purposes were swollen 
beyond all previous records. 

Such was the policy embodied in the McKinley Bill It 
proved to be a dangerous policy for the Republican party The 
effect of the bill was to raise prices all along the line. Every 
drummer became an effective campaign agent for the Demo- 
crats; and m the election in the fall of 1890, following the pas- 
sage of the act, the Republicans were reduced to an almost in- 
significant minority in the House of Representatives. Two 
^ years later the Democrats, for the first time since the war, elected 
their presidential candidate, a large majority in the lower House 
^ and a small majority in the Senate. Some of the wiser Re- 
I publicans, such as James G. Blaine and Benjamin Butterworth 
one of Mr. Hanna's intimate friends, had predicted this result 
and tried to avoid it; but in truth forces had been unloosed 
which were beyond individual control. The policy of the Re- 
publicans m the session of 1889-1890 must be considered as a 
culminating expression of a method of economic legislation 
which had prevailed in this country at least since the Civil War 
Under this method the only interests consulted in respect to a 
piece of economic legislation were the special interests thereby 
benefited ; and the protective tariff was only one illustration of 
the practice. 

j In the case of the McKinley Bill and the legislation which 
accompanied it, the practice had been pushed to an extreme 
which exposed the incompatibility between the unregulated 
lemands of a special interest and the manifest requirements of 
;he national interest ; but the error was natural, and the manu- 
facturers were only behaving as all the other special interests 



152 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

had behaved. The American economic system had been con- 
ceived as a huge profit-sharing concern, the function of the gov- 
ernment being to encourage productive enterprise in every form 
by lending assistance to the producers. Business of all kinds 
had thus become inextricably entangled with politics, and in one 
way or another the private income of the majority of American 
citizens was very much influenced by the government legisla- 
tion. And whatever criticisms may be passed on this economic 
system or whatever the ensuing excesses, it was undoubtedly 
planned in good faith for the purpose of stimulating American 
economic expansion in all its branches and of contributing to 
the prosperity of all classes of American society. 

The business men and politicians of the day were so accus- 
tomed to his method of promoting American economic welfare 
that they accepted it as a matter of course. Among others both 
William McKinley and Mark Hanna accepted it as so funda- 
mental as scarcely to need any defence. Mistakes might be 
made in applying the policy, abuses might arise under its ad- 
ministration of the resulting legislation, and different special 
interests might fight over the distribution of the benefits, but 
the system itself was rooted in the American tradition of eco- 
nomic legislation. In spite of protests against specific excesses 
and abuses, public opinion overwhelmingly supported the sys- 
tem as a whole, and its inevitable effects were to make business ■ 
prosperity depend upon the course of political agitation and i 
the result of elections. It was precisely the interdependence 
between business and politics which gave to a man like Mark 
Hanna, who embodied the alliance, an opportunity of effective 
influence. 

The Republican disasters in the elections of 1890 brought 
with them unpleasant consequences, possible and actual, for 
Mark Hanna and his immediate associates. In order to un- 
derstand the resulting political complications, we must return) 
to the course of political events in the state of Ohio. The' 
prompt exhibition after the Convention of Mr. Hanna's friend- 
ship for McKinley was balanced by an even prompter exhibition 
of his hostility to Mr. Foraker. The latter was once again a 
candidate for governor. Mr. Hanna attended the State Con- 
vention held in June, 1889, at Columbus, and opposed Mrj 



I 



POLITICAL FRIENDS AND ENEMIES 153 

Foraker's nomination. McKinley also was present and made 
a speech nominating another candidate, in which he had re- 
marked that "no obligation to party can justify treachery to 
party associates." But Mr. Foraker was too strong for his 
enemies. He was nominated and stumped the state with his 
usual vigor. He was opposed by the Democrats, chiefly on 
the ground that he was seeking a third term, and he was beaten 
in spite of the fact that some of the Republican ticket were 
elec"^ed. His defeat increased the schism between himself and 
the McKinleyites, who were erroneously accused in the news- 
papers of treachery to the state ticket. 

Another incident of the fall of 1889 served to intensify the 
ill feeling which certain of Mr. Hanna's friends bore towards 
the redoubtable Governor. Late in September a Cincinnati 
newspaper published an alleged contract which implicated the 
Democratic candidate for governor, James E. Campbell, in an 
attempt to use his official position as a congressional repre- 
sentative for the purpose of. selling to the government a patent 
ballot-box. A copy of the contract had been furnished to the 
editor of the paper by Governor Foraker. A few days later it 
was divulged that John Sherman, William McKinley and Ben- 
jamin Butterworth, among others, were also signers of the al- 
leged contract. It developed almost immediately that the 
paper was a forgery and that the Governor had been misled 
into accepting it as genuine. The fact that Mr. Foraker had 
given to the press a paper implicating prominent Republicans 
of Ohio in a dishonorable transaction without giving them any 
warning or allowing them any hearing was attributed by the 
injured gentlemen to personal malice. 

In the meantime Mark Hanna was trying to procure from a 
Republican President certain offices for his political associates 
in Cleveland — thus compensating himself for the loss of his 
influence with the Governor. But for some reason President 
Harrison disliked Mr. Hanna and either ignored or forgot the 
efforts which the latter had used on behalf of his election. 
Every one of his recommendations was turned down. He did 
not even succeed when he requested the appointment of an old 
friend as lighthouse master at the end of the Cleveland Break- 
water. These recommendations was usually made through 



154 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

Senator Sherman and indorsed by him, but other candidates 
were always appointed. Senator Sherman wrote to Mr. Hanna 
in April, 1889, "I am weary and discouraged, — weary from pres- 
sure based upon the opinion that I can do something for my 
friends, and discouraged because I have not been able to do 
anything." 

Mr. Hanna also became involved in a controversy with Con- 
gressman T. E. Burton about the appointment to the head of 
the Cleveland post-office. Mr. Hanna was backing our old 
friend William M. Bayne, — the man whom he had urged twice 
upon Foraker for the oil inspectorship and whom he had nom- 
inated for mayor. Mr. Burton's candidate was A. T. Ander- 
son. In this instance the Postmaster-general, Mr. Wanamaker, 
was favorable to Mr. Hanna, but his influence was of no avail. 
President Harrison insisted that Mr. Burton, as the local con- 
gressman, was entitled to the appointment ; and he received it. 
Mr. Burton states that his relations with Mr. Hanna remained 
friendly after this little passage-at-arms, but they were not 
quite as friendly as before. Evidently at this particular period 
Mr. Hanna must have felt that however interesting was this 
game of politics, the winnings were small in proportion to the 
losses. 

He had, however, one compensation. He was making some 
very fast friends among some very fine men. At the time when 
his political intimacy with both Sherman and McKinley was 
increasing, he was also becoming extremely friendly with Ben- 
jamin Butterworth. Mr. Butterworth was not only an able 
man and a disinterested public servant, but he was gifted with 
a highly expansive and sympathetic disposition. The warmth 
of his feelings towards his friends obtained a very characteris- 
tic expression in his correspondence with them. His letters 
to Mr. Hanna are not like the letters of Mr. Hanna's other asso- 
ciates, that is, merely dry business scripts. They overflow 
with expressions of personal feeling, and are the kind of letters 
which only a man of lively affections and some imagination 
could write to a sympathetic friend. Letters of this kind are 
so rare in the life of a man like Mr. Hanna that they deserve to 
be quoted for their own and for his sake. 

Under the date of June 12, 1890, Mr. Butterworth writes: 



POLITICAL FRIENDS AND ENEMIES 155 

"I have your delightful scrawl before me again, and whenever 
I see the name of Hanna there comes before me your good- 
natured face and kindly bearing, the influence of which is to 
impel me to pack my satchel and go to Cleveland, where I can 
see you in the flesh, but duty rides me as if I were a flagging 
steed and had some devil mounted on me with whip and spur 
to hound me on. Never mind, the day is coming when I will 
have some time to devote to my friends, and the night is ap- 
proaching when there will be a long rest and a delightful sleep 
on the bosom of our common mother. Whether all there is of 
us will lie down to that delightful slumber I do not know, but 
I know that there is in us a spark of divinity which shall vita- 
lize a new-born man, and that together you and I will stroll 
along by the still waters of another world. Of course you will 
have a higher degree of happiness and better luck there, just 
as you have here, and that you will deserve there, even as you do 
here." 

In February, 1891, Mr. Butterworth deals with the political sit- 
uation in Ohio in the following terms: "Touching politics, you 
will see that the champion of forgery is still splashing in the 
waters and aspiring to that which only good men ought to attain 
to. John Sherman is as usual playing fast and loose. There 
is a struggle going on in regard to the postmastership in Cin- 
cinnati. Sherman is afraid of McKinley and worried about 
Harrison. McKinley is troubled about both Harrison and 
Sherman, and Sherman is as anxious to be President and con- 
tinued in the Senatorial office as ever he was in his life, so that 
none of them exercises any influence with reference to clean and 
honorable politics, but simply play in the game." 

A little later Mr. Butterworth, having failed of reelection to 
Congress, was appointed, partly, it would appear, owing to Mr. 
Hanna's influence, to an official position with the Columbian 
Exposition Company; and on March 18, 1891, he writes from 
Chicago the following characteristic letter to Mr. Hanna: — 

"March 18, 1891. 
"My dear Hanna : — 

"It is not probable that you are in a frame of mind that 
would ecable you to enjoy a line from an old friend, who snatches 



156 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

a minute from an hour heavily mortgaged to other duties to 
tumble upon you a few rambling observations. Well ! Mark, 
I am out of the procession. I no longer keep the lock-step 
prescribed by party discipline nor wear the fetters of a political 
bondsman. As Uncle John said (not meaning a word of it), 'I 
can now say just what I d — n please.' I would have added, 
if I had been in Uncle John's pants, ' so long as no one hears 
me.' I am out of it, and, my dear friend, I feel like a tired har- 
vester at set of sun, when the cradle has been thrown aside, 
and he tumbles on the grass beneath some spreading tree. 

''I met and lunched with our good friend Governor Merriam. 
He thinks you are one of the best fellows on earth, in fact, he said 
so ; and I hadn't the heart to correct him. And to-day, so far 
as any remark of mine is concerned. Governor Merriam thinks 
his eulogy of you was approved of by me. 

"It is seven o'clock p.m. I am here alone. The shadows 
of night have settled on this restless city. I feel less alone here 
communing with you, breaking your rest, than if I was in the 
motley throng that gathers nightly at the Palmer House." 

Letters such as those of Mr. Butterworth are unique in Mr. 
Hanna's correspondence. He received, of course, many letters 
overflowing with expressions of personal feeling, but the 
letters which he received from political friends and associates 
refer merely to matters of temporary political and personal 
business. This is particularly true in respect to his correspond- 
ence with Mr. McKinley. Only about a score of letters and 
some four telegrams written by Mr. McKinley to Mr. Hanna 
have been preserved ; and the great majority of these are trivial 
in character. It is, consequently, impossible to find any signifi- 
cant indications in their correspondence of the increasing in- 
timacy between the two men. Mr. McKinley was in all his 
political relations an extremely wary man. He early adopted 
the practice of not committing to paper any assertions or 
promises which might subsequently prove to be embarrassing ; 
and even in the case of important conversations over the tele- 
phone, he frequently took the precaution of having a witness 
at his end of the line. It is scarcely to be expected vhat any 
letters of his will be of much assistance, either to his own 



POLITICAL FRIENDS AND ENEMIES 157 

biographer or that of any political associate — in spite of, or 
rather because of, the fact that McKinley late in his life wrote 
too many of his letters with a biographer so much in mind. 

All important matters were discussed between the two men 
in private conference. When a personal interview was impossi- 
ble, a confidential intermediary was usually employed. Such 
methods of correspondence suited Mr. Hanna as well as Mr. 
McKinley, not because he was to the same extent a man of 
caution and precaution, but because in business he had been 
accustomed to settling important affairs by means of personal 
interviews. As in the case of almost all genuine Americans, 
his natural method of expression was the spoken word, not 
only because the spoken word was direct and frank, but be- 
cause it carried with it the force of a man's will and person- 
ality. Letters were merely the forerunners and the consequences 
of personal interviews, or else a sort of hyphen between them. 

A majority of the surviving letters written by Mr. McKinley 
to Mr. Hanna date, however, from this particular period. Dur- 
ing 1889 and 1890, Mr. McKinley spent most of his time in 
Washington, and was, consequently, obliged to write some few 
notes to Mr. Hanna about patronage, and about such legisla- 
tive matters as the metal schedules of the tariff bill. Later, 
when one of them was living in Canton and the other in Cleve- 
land, they were connected by a special telephone service. Some 
of the notes of this period may be quoted, not because of their 
intrinsic importance, but merely as a sample of the sort of letter 
which Mr. McKinley was in the habit of writing to his friend. 

During the fall of 1890 he was fighting hard for reelection 
to Congress, and Mr. Hanna was naturally taking an active 
interest in his canvass. The following note was written in 
Cleveland, on the occasion of a short visit, unexpectedly made 
by Mr. McKinley during Mr. Hanna's absence. 

"Cleveland, Oct. 6, 1890. 
"Dear Mr. Hanna: — 

"Awfully sorry not to see you. Came up last night and have 
remained until the last moment and find that you will not be 
home until evening. Would stay longer, but have a meeting 
to-night. 



158 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

"Frank Osborne will talk to you fully and he will explain to 
you all. I start out to-morrow for the remainder of the cam- 
paign. The outlook is surprisingly favorable. 

"Your friend, 

"W. McKiNLEY, Jr." 

A little over a month later, after he had been defeated for re- 
election to Congress, he wrote to Mr. Hanna as follows : — 

"Chicago, III., Nov. 12, 1890. 
"My DEAR Mr. Hanna : — 

"I have your kind favor of Nov. 10. I am here for a little 
rest — sorry not to have seen you when last in Cleveland — ■ 
may run up there before my return to Washington, but am 
not certain. At all events I will see you. 

" I agree with you that defeat under the circumstances was 

for the best. 

"With kind regards 

" I am sincerely 

"W. McKlNLEY." 

"P. S. There is no occasion for alarm. We must take no 
backward step." 

Evidently from the foregoing note Mr. Hanna had not been 
at all discouraged by the Republican defeat in the fall of 1890 — 
at least in so far as Major McKinley's political future was con- 
cerned. He evidently argued that inasmuch as the legisla- 
tion with which McKinley's name was associated had been 
disapproved by public opinion, it was just as well for Mc- 
Kinley to retire from a region of political action in which 
he had incurred unpopularity, and to continue his career 
in some other part of the political battlefield. At all 
events the plan rapidly took shape of nominating McKinley 
for governor in the summer of 1891 ; and this plan was 
successfully accomplished. The Convention was held in June, 
and the Major was placed at the head of the ticket, prac- 
tically without opposition. He was not opposed by Foraker; 
that gentleman had other irons in the fire. The Legislature 
elected in the fall of 1891 named a Senator to succeed Mr. Sher- 
man; and Mr. Foraker was anticipating and seeking an en- 



POLITICAL FRIENDS AND ENEMIES 159 

larged sphere of usefulness in Washington. The very fact 
which may have smoothed the way for the nomination of 
McKinley threatened the poHtical future of another of Mr. 
Hanna's poUtical friends — John Sherman himself. 

In the campaign which followed, Mr. Hanna had, conse- 
quently, two objects to accomplish, both of which demanded 
unusual efforts. It was extremely necessary to elect Mr. 
McKinley. His political future was not necessarily compro- 
mised by the unpopularity of the McKinley Bill and his failure 
to be ijeturned to the House of Representatives, because a turn 
of the tide might bring his policy of high protectionism back 
into favor. But a defeat in his candidacy for governor might 
well be disastrous to the presidential candidacy, which both 
of the friends already had in mind. It would create the impres- 
sion of an insecure hold on the people of his own state, and 
thereafter it would be difficult to keep his figure before the public 
as a presidential possibility. Yet there was no certainty of 
McKinley's election. Republicanism was suffering a temporary 
eclipse all over the country. Foraker had been defeated two 
years before. The state of Ohio, which was always Republi- 
can on presidential years, frequently disconcerted the party 
machine by going Democratic on off years. 

But the sentorial fight complicated the election still further, 
and aroused in Mr. Hanna an almost equal interest. He con- 
tinued to be a close political friend of Senator Sherman, and 
for personal reasons ardently desired both the victory of the 
Senator and the defeat of Mr. Foraker. The failure to reelect 
Mr. Sherman after his long service in the Senate would in Mr. 
Hanna's eyes have been a disgrace to his native state. Yet 
in order to return Mr. Sherman to the Senate, it was necessary 
to canvass the whole state by districts, and to see that enough 
candidates for the Legislature were pledged to vote for him. 

In the campaign of 1891 Mr. Hanna gave even more of his 
time to Senator Sherman's candidacy than he did to that of Major 
McKinley, He undoubtedly took much more pains to secure 
Mr. McKinley's election than he did in the case of an ordinary 
Republican candidate ; but his efforts for his friend were con- 
fined chiefly to raising money. He could trust the State Com- 
mittee to work hard for the regular candidate for governor. 



160 MAKCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

Mr. Sherman's interest, on the other hand, required personal 
direction, and Mr. Hanna assumed a large part of the work. 
His correspondence during these months is filled far more with 
the details of the Sherman, than with those of the McKinley, 
campaign. 

He went, indeed, to unusual personal exertions to secure for 
McKinley a large campaign fund. He solicited contributions 
over his own personal signature, not merely in Ohio, but from 
manufacturers in Chicago and Pittsburgh, on the ground that 
the defeat of McKinley would be interpreted as a further dis- 
aster to the general cause of protection. While frequently 
rebuffed on the ground that Ohio ought to take care of her 
own protectionists, he obtained some little money from these 
irregular sources. He seems to have been unusually success- 
ful in collecting money in Cleveland, some of which went to 
the candidate himself for personal expenses. On August 30, 
1891, he wrote to Mr. Hanna : "I am a thousand times obliged 
for your letter with enclosure. I will forward it at once to the 
State Committee. I beg you will give to all of my friends 
who participated my sincere thanks. It was most gen- 
erous of you and others ; and I have to thank you most of all." 
Two weeks later he writes: "Your favor of September 7 I 
find here upon my return home to-day. Please receive my sin- 
cere thanks for your goodness, and now I beg to suggest that 
you forward direct to the Committee any other contributions 
that may be placed in your hands. I have sufficient to defray 
my personal expenses." The payment of the personal ex- 
penses of a candidate had long been customary. Garfield 
received an allowance for his entertaining at Mentor during 
the campaign of 1880, and later in 1896 the National Commit- 
tee allowed McKinley $10,000 for personal expenses. 

In the case of Mr. Sherman's candidacy, Mr. Hanna's efforts 
were not confined to raising money. A good many thousand 
dollars were indeed contributed — partly by Senator Sher- 
man himself — for the purpose of assisting legislative candi- 
dates in doubtful districts ; and this money was placed in the 
hands of the chairman of the State Executive Committee, 
Mr. W. M. Hahn, who was favorable to Mr. Sherman's reelec- 
tion. But in addition special efforts had to be made to pledge 



POLITICAL FRIENDS AND ENEMIES 161 

legislative candidates to Sherman rather than to Foraker, and in 
case a pledge was refused to bring the pressure of local public 
opinion upon an adverse or doubtful nominee. Agents were 
sent all over the state to carry on this work. Not a district 
was neglected which offered any promise of a fruitful return. 

In the beginning Senator Sherman had not taken very seri- 
ously the threatened opposition. Later, however, Captain Don- 
aldson, a state committeeman who for years had made a specialty 
of looking after the legislative districts, and who was an ardent 
supporter of Mr. Sherman, was placed in charge of the details 
of the canvass. He calculated on being able to secure some 
fifty-three votes for Sherman in the caucus; but in order to 
do so he needed some S10,000 to spend in the doubtful counties. 
He went to Cleveland, and explained the situation to Mr. 
Hanna, who promised him the money. Senator Sherman him- 
self selected the man to whom the disbursement of this fund 
was intrusted. They did not count upon any votes from Hamil- 
ton County, in spite of Mr. Sherman's expectations to the con- 
trary, but a unanimous delegation from Cleveland was con- 
sidered indispensable. Mr. Hanna took personal charge of his 
own county — the importance of which may be judged from 
the following extract from a letter of Senator Sherman to Mr. 
Hanna, dated Sept. 22, 1891. "I am assured," he writes, "from 
Columbus that if the nominees for the Legislature from Cuy- 
ahoga County are substantially solid for me, it will settle the 
senatorial contest and greatly relieve the canvass. So I feel 
that you are fighting the battle for the state." A week later, 
after the local primaries had been held, he writes : "You made 
a glorious fight in Cleveland, for which I am under a thousand 
obligations to you. The result is extremely gratifying, and I 
agree with you that without the active support you and others 
have rendered, we might have been defeated by superior or- 
ganization." 

On election day Mr. Hanna and his friends won a decisive 
victory. In a year of general Republican defeat, Mr. Mc- 
Kinley was elected governor by an unusually large majority. 
Immediately thereafter, Thomas B. Reed, the former Speaker, 
who had stumped Ohio during the campaign, wrote to Mr. 
McKinley, " I am much rejoiced over your victory, which is the 



162 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

only bright spot in the last elections. Your State Committee 
gave me a hard season, but it was wound up so delightfully 
at Mark Hanna's that if you ever want to coax me to do 
anything you had better send Hanna." The Legislature was 
Repubhcan by a good majority. 

Senator Sherman's friends calculated on the face of the re- 
turns that he would beat Foraker in the caucus, and they were 
surprised to find shortly after the election that the most confi- 
dent claims were made from the Foraker headquarters of a 
Foraker victory. Certain members of the Legislature, includ- 
ing three from Cleveland, who were either pledged to Sherman 
or were counted upon by his managers were threatening to 
backslide. A week before the caucus Mr. Hanna went to 
Columbus and took personal charge of the Sherman campaign. 
The situation looked desperate ; but it was saved, so Mr. Sher- 
man himself stated to his friends, by Mr. Hanna's energy, 
enthusiasm and ability to bend other men to his will. Three 
of the Cleveland representatives, who had gone into hiding, 
were unearthed and forced into line. When the caucus was 
held. Senator Sherman received fifty-three votes to thirty- 
eight for Foraker. 

On January 9 Senator Sherman wrote to Mr. Hanna the fol- 
lowing letter : — 

"My dear Sir: — 

" Now, after the smoke of battle is cleared away, I wish first 
of all and above all to express to you my profound gratitude 
and sincere respects for the part you have taken in the recent 
Senatorial canvass. I feel that without you I would have been 
beaten. It was your foresight in securing the Cleveland 
delegation that gave us the strongest support and made it 
possible to counteract the evil influence of the Hamilton County 
delegation. 

" You have been a true friend, liberal, earnest and sincere, 
without any personal selfish motive, but only guided by a sense 
of what is best for the people of Ohio and of the country. I 
wish you to know that I appreciate all this and will treasure it 
as long as I live and only wish the time may come when I may 
in some way show that I am deserving of all your kindness. 



POLITICAL FRIENDS AND ENEMIES 163 

" When I was about to pay the bills, Hahn said you had as- 
sumed some or had provided means for the payment of certain 
expenses. It is not right that you should bear this burden, 
and I hope you will frankly state to me what amount you have 
expended and what obligations you have incurred, so that I may 
at least share it with you. I have so written to Hahn. It is 
a source of great satisfaction to me that our canvass was made 
without the expenditure of a single dollar for boodle, with no 
bitterness to our adversaries, and with no appeals for our can- 
didate to the interested cupidity or ambition of the Senators 
and members. 

" Please give my kindly greetings to your wife and tell her for 
me that she is lucky to have so good a husband, the soul of honor. 

"Very sincerely yours, 

"John Sherman." 

The foregoing letter speaks for itself, and calls for only one 
comment, /in spite of Senator Sherman's professions of grati- 
tude he never mentions Mr. Hanna's name in the lengthy ac- 
count of his final election to the Senate, which appears in his 
"Reminiscences." Indeed, Mr. Hanna's name never appears 
in the entire book. The volume was published in 1895 and 
1896, so that Mr. Sherman's later grievance against Mr. Hanna, 
if grievance it was, could have had nothing to do with the 
omission. / 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE MAKING OF A PRESIDENT 

The victory in Ohio in the fall of 1891 was the first substan- 
tial triumph of Mark Hanna's political career. Theretofore 
the candidates in whose election he was most interested had 
usually been beaten ; and these frequent failures must have been 
trying to a man who was accustomed to succeed, and whose 
cherished political purposes were all related to the election to 
office of certain friends and associates. The victories of Mc- 
Kinley and Sherman must, consequently, have been all the more 
gratifying. The first constituted an important step towards, 
the realization of Mr. Hanna's dearest ambition. The second 
was a blow to the prestige of his irreconcilable opponent, and 
made it easier to keep control of the state organization in Mc- 
Kinley's interest. Thus the elections of 1891 had done much 
to repair the damage caused by the disaster of the previous 
fall. Mr. McKinley's prestige would be considerably enhanced 
by his selection during a year of Republican defeat to an office 
from which one Republican had already graduated to the 
presidency. McKinley had become personally more than ever 
a presidential possibility. 

The question immediately to be considered was whether 
anything could or should be done to push the candidacy at 
the coming National Convention. The situation was difficult 
and complicated. The most prominent candidate for the nom- 
ination was, of course, President Benjamin Harrison. It is 
always a dangerous matter to oppose the renomination of a 
President who has done nothing to disqualify himself for a 
second term. A strong anti-administration sentiment is neces- 
sary to overcome the initial advantage which a President can 
derive from the prestige and patronage of his office ; and an op- 
ponent is further handicapped because his candidacy must be 
based partly on a criticism of a President derived from his 

164 



THE MAKING OF A PRESIDENT 165 

own party. Whenever a fight is made, it tends to become bitter 
and threatens a dangerous schism within the ranks of the Faith- 
ful. 

Strong, however, as was the position of the President, it 
presented certain weaknesses, which the friends of an alter- 
native candidate could scarcely ignore. Mr. Harrison was per- / 
sonally unpopular. He had made many enemies in the party, 
who would have been glad to see him defeated. On the sur- 
face his nomination was not by any means assured. A ma- 
jority (^f the delegates were not pledged to vote for him. The 
disaffected elements in the party might be able to hold up the 
nomination and concentrate upon some other candidate. Among 
the disaffected Republicans was Mr. Hanna. He had not been 
well treated by Mr. Harrison and would in any event have been 
opposed to the President's renomination. In September, 1891, 
an attempt had been made to disarm his opposition. His friend, 
Charles Foster, who was Secretary of the Treasury, prevailed 
upon the President to offer to Mr. Hanna the office of Treas- 
urer of the National Committee. It was a position which 
he was well qualified to fill, and which under ordinary circum- 
stances he would have been likely to accept. But its acceptance 
would have tied him to the administration, and he declined. 
He wished to remain free to take any advantage of President 
Harrison's lack of strength which the situation, as it developed, 
permitted. 

Under the circumstances the plan was adopted of keeping 
the McKinley candidacy above the surface but in the back- 
ground. No attempt was made to secure the election of dele- 
gates pledged to McKinley. Mr. McKinley himself assumed 
the correct attitude of being overtly favorable to Harrison's 
renomination. But preparations were made to bring McKinley 
forward, in case Mr. Harrison's renomination proved to be diffi- 
cult. Mr. Hanna's hope was that enough delegates would be 
kept away from the President by a revival of the Blaine can- 
didacy to tie up the nomination and permit the introduction of 
McKinley into the breach. Mr. Hanna was not a delegate to 
the Convention, but he went to Minneapolis and opened an 
unofficial headquarters for McKinley at the West House. 
For some days he tried, not without prospects of success, to 



166 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

arrange combinations, which under certain possible contingen- 
cies might result in McKinley's favor. 

It was, however, a useless effort. McKinley never had a 
chance, and he did well not to abandon his overt support of the 
President and his overt discouragement of his own followers. 
Mr. Harrison could not be beaten. Twelve of his friends, sub- 
sequently named the "Twelve Apostles," conceived the idea 
of collecting all the Harrison disciples together as a sort of dem- 
onstration in force, which would constrain the weaker brethren. 
The meeting was held in Market Hall and was attended by a 
sufficient number of delegates to assure the nomination. Presi- 
dent Harrison received 535 votes on the first ballot and his 
selection was made unanimous. The McKinley headquar- 
ters at the West House had been closed some days before, al- 
though this fact did not prevent Mr. Hanna from continuing to 
work on behalf of his friend. As the event proved, it was for- 
tunate that the President was strong enough to obtain a re- 
nomination. Probably no Republican candidate could have 
been elected in 1892, while at the same time the President's 
defeat resulted in making McKinley even more possible for 
1896. He was generally admitted to be the most available 
man for the next nomination. No less than 182 delegates had 
voted for him as an unauthorized candidate, which was as many 
as had voted for Blaine. He had been hailed in the Conven- 
tion as the candidate for '96. The symptoms could scarcely 
be more favorable. 

The Convention was no sooner over than steps were taken 
in the direction of Governor McKinley's nomination in 1896. 
On this point the testimony of ex-Senator Charles Dick is 
explicit. He had been a delegate to the Minneapolis Conven- 
tion ; and (according to his account) Mr. Hanna and others of 
the Republican leaders in Ohio had talked with him about 
accepting 'the chairmanship of the State Committee in case 
McKinley were nominated. About two weeks later the State 
Committee met in Columbus, and selected Mr. Dick as chair- 
man. As soon as he was notified, he started for Columbus to 
decline the honor. He had agreed to accept it only in case 
some Ohio man were nominated. There he had an interview 
with Governor McKinley, who urged him to accept and insisted 



THE MAKING OF A PRESIDENT 167 

that before reaching any negative decision he have an inter- 
view with Mr. Hanna. The result was that he allowed him- 
self to be persuaded. They both of them urged the necessity 
of having a trustworthy McKinley man at the head of the 
State Committee, so that every local campaign between 1892 
and 1896 could be conducted with a view to the nomination 
of the Governor in 1896. 

No opportunity was lost to keep the candidate before the 
pubhc. During the campaign of 1892 special efforts were made 
to make Mr. McKinley conspicuous on the stump. An unusually 
prolonged trip was arranged by Thomas H. Carter, chairman 
of the Republican National Committee, after consultation with 
Mr. Hanna. The Governor's route stretched as far west as 
Iowa and Minnesota, and as far east as Maine, and it included 
all the important intervening states. Wherever he went he 
made a favorable impression. He was not like William J. ^ 
Bryan a great popular orator, but he was a persuasive andQ' 
effective speaker, who could give dignity and sincerity to the 
commonplaces of partisan controversy. Above all, his amia- 
bility and his winning personal qualities never failed to make 
for him friends and well-wishers. 

The defeat of Benjamin Harrison and the election of Grover 
Cleveland had, of course, a profound although at first a doubt- 
ful, effect upon Mr. McKinley's general standing as a presi- 
dential candidate. The campaign on his behalf would be either 
very much strengthened or very much weakened, — according 
to the success or failure of the new President's administration. 
Mr. Cleveland had been elected on the tariff issue. The high 
protectionist legislation passed in 1890 continued to be so 
unpopular that not only did he receive a larger majority in 
the electoral college than he had in 1884, but his party secured 
the control of both Houses of Congress. For the first time j. 
since the Civil War the Democrats were in a position to fulfill 
their preelection promises. If they could pass a measure of 
tariff reform, which would receive the approval of the country, 
Mr. McKinley's chief political stock-in-trade would be very 
much damaged. On the other hand the failure of tariff re- 
form as a practical economic and political policy would make 
him the logical candidate of his own party. 



168 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

The situation, however, as it* developed, brought with it an 
additional complication, which was to be as embarrassing to 
Mr. McKinley in 1896 as it was to President Cleveland in 
1893. When the new administration assumed office in the 
March of that year, not only was the economic prosperity of 
the country compromised, but the security of its whole credit 
system had been gravely threatened. The country had en- 
joyed thirteen or fourteen years of practically uninterrupted 
agricultural and industrial expansion. The new states between 
the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains had been settled 
with unusual rapidity, and with an over-confident assurance 
that the prairie lands of the western part of Kansas and Nebraska 
would be as available for immediately profitable cultivation 
as had the better watered lands farther east. The farmers had 
gone heavily into debt for the sake of improving their home- 
steads, and were depending on a steady increase in ground 
value, remunerative prices for grain, and a persistently abun- 
dant supply of loanable capital in order to meet their obliga- 
tions. 

None of these necessities was forthcoming. The settlement 
of this particular region had been closely associated vnih an un- 
precedented amount of railway construction. The new mileage 
was built as much for the future as for the present. It had 
called for an enormous amount of capital, upon which suffi- 
cient returns could not be immediately earned. It stimu- 
lated the settlement of new farms to such an extent that for 
many years the supply of agricultural commodities tended to 
exceed the world's demand. This whole section of the country 
needed time to grow up to its improvements. Too much money 
had been borrowed on the strength of expectations, the realiza- 
tion of which would have to be postponed much longer than the 
borrowers anticipated. 

Unfortunately, however, just at this juncture the security 
of the whole American financial system was threatened by the 
effects of the liberal purchase and coinage of silver by the govern- 
ment — a policy which had been favored by the West under the 
erroneous idea that the more money issued by the government 
per capita the more each farmer would have in his pocket. This 
policy eventually caused that very contraction of credit which 



THE MAKING OF A PRESIDENT 169 

was needed in order to compromise still more seriously the sit- 
uation of the western borrowers. It had become doubtful 
whether the government could maintain gold payments — in 
the face of the persistent exportation of gold, and the steady 
drain on the gold reserve. At the same time the Treasury was 
embarrassed by a deficit resulting from a combination of in- 
dustrial depression and the Republican tariff and appropri- 
ation acts of 1890. 

These different causes of uncertainty and depression began to 
be felt in full during the early months of President Cleveland's 
second term. By June the country was suffering from a full- 
fledged panic. Mr. Cleveland, who was as much committed to 
the maintenance of the gold standard as he was to tariff reform, 
called an extra session of Congress to assemble early in August. 
A long and a bitter struggle took place, during which the ad- 
ministration had to strain all its resources, but the silver pur-. 
chase act was finally repealed. Nevertheless the business of 
the country did not recover. The drain upon the gold reserve 
continued ; and the government was obliged repeatedly to 
sell bonds in order to replenish the supply. . 

The business depression which accompanied and followed 
these events was exceptionally severe ; and it was felt through- 
out the length and breadth of the United States. It did not 
have the usual effect of releasing money from active business 
and allowing debtors more easily to obtain loans on any suffi- 
cient security, because the whole credit system had been un- 
dermined. The borrowing farmers suffered severely, — often 
to the point of losing their farms. The prices of commodities 
fell and the cost of living was low, but business was so bad and so 
many men were out of employment that only a few were 
benefited. The suffering was acute and widespread and had 
an immediate effect upon the political situation. The ad- 
ministration was made responsible for the disasters, which it 
had worked heroically to avert. The tide began to set in favor 
of Republican candidates and policies. 

These events, disastrous as they were to the country, were 
manifestly favorable to the candidacy of William McKinley, 
Jr., but just at this crisis a misfortune befell that gentleman 
which threatened to ruin his political career. In February, 



170 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

1893, he became bankrupt, as a result of the failure of a man 
named Walker, of Youngstown, Ohio. He had indorsed some 
paper for Mr. Walker, who was a friend of long standing, and 
who under Mr. McKinley's encouragement had gone into the 
business of manufacturing tin plates. The notes he had in- 
dorsed aggregated over $100,000, which was a larger sum 
than the combined possessions of himself and wife. Mr. 
McKinley was in despair — and saw no alternative but the 
abandonment of politics and the devotion of the remainder of 
his life to the payment of his obligations. 

In his distress he went to Myron T. Herrick of Cleveland, 
who was a close friend. Mr. Hanna was in New York at the 
time attending to troubles of his own, and could not imme- 
diately come to his assistance. Mr. Herrick, with the aid of H. 
H. Kohlsaat of Chicago and Thomas McDougal of Cincinnati, 
raised a fund to meet the first of the maturing obligations, 
but as their volume increased they found the task beyond their 
ability. Soon after, Mr. Hanna himself came to the rescue, 
took the matter in charge, and succeeded in raising in Cleve- 
land and elsewhere a sum of money sufficient to meet all Mr. 
McKinley's debts. Among the contributors to this fund were 
H. H. Kohlsaat, Samuel Mather, John Hay, Thomas Mc- 
Dougal, J. H. Wade, James Pickands, A. A. Pope, William 
Chisholm, Charles Brush, James H. Hoyt, Charles Taft, 
Andrew Carnegie, H. C. Frick, Philander Knox, and many 
others. The list was made up as much of Mark Hanna's 
friends as it was of William McKinley's. The latter 's personal 
popularity was such that a considerable sum was contributed 
voluntarily in small amounts by poor people. 

The panic which cost Mr. McKinley, his wife and friends 
so much money was a blessing to his cause. It only remained 
for him and his co-workers to turn the opportunity to good 
account — which was done in the fall of 1893. He had been 
renominated for governor in the spring of that year, and in 
November was reelected by a majority of no less than 80,000. 
The brilliance of this victory made a profound impression on 
the public mind. No such majority had been known in Ohio 
since the war. Hundreds of telegrams and letters of congratu- 
lation were showered on the victor, and two-thirds of them 



THE MAKING OF A PRESIDENT 171 

welcomed him as the next President of the United States. 
For the first time he began to be named, not merely as an eligible, 
but as the logical, candidate. Two days after the election his 
name was placed on the editorial page of the Cleveland Leader 
as its candidate for the nomination. IVIore significant and 
interesting is the fact that on November 18 a cartoon was 
published in the same newspaper, in which Uncle Sam was 
pointing to the rising sun of McKinley in 1896 and with it the 
dawn of renewed prosperity. 

So far as I know this was the first public advertisement of 
the idea that the nomination and election of McKinley would 
bring with it a revival of business activity. Manifestly a 
more popular slogan could not be found in a period of acute eco- 
nomic dearth ; and it is significant that it apparently origi- 
nated in Cleveland. Who was responsible for its origination 
is obscure ; but as soon as it was suggested, Mr. Hanna was 
the man above all others to sympathize with it and under- 
stand its availability. The dominant object of political policy 
and action was from his business point of view the encourage- 
ment of a steady and general economic prosperity. There- 
after a systematic attempt was made to impress McKinley 
on the popular mind as the "advance agent of prosperity." 

The "prosperity" issue was made more popular, and from 
the point of the Republican protectionist, more pertinent, 
by the course of business and politics in 1894. In that year 
the Democratic leaders made an attempt to revise the tariff 
in accordance with their campaign pledges. The attempt was 
bungled. The bill, as it finally passed, was so unsatisfactory 
to President Cleveland that he allowed it to become a law 
without his signature. During a period of economic dearth 
any legislation on the tariff was likely to make trouble. It 
emphasized the existing depression in several important manu- 
facturing industries. At the same time it alienated public 
sympathy, because many of its schedules were just as plainly 
the work of selfish special interests as were those of the McKin- 
ley Bill. It was a measure of tariff reform which contained very 
little reform ; and what was as bad it was a tariff for revenue 
only, which failed as a revenue law. The income tax, which,-- 
was to provide the revenue needed under a tariff for revenue 



172 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

only, was declared unconstitutional. A heavy deficit was 
fastened on the Treasury at the very time when the gold re- 
serve was being depleted by financial uncertainty. In every 
respect the Wilson Bill proved to be a failure, and really or 
apparently increased and prolonged the prevailing business 
depression. 

The effect of the Wilson Bill in contributing to the economic 
privations of the American people was very much exaggerated; 
but the Republican leaders, and particularly the friends 
of Mr. McKinley, can hardly be blamed for taking what ad- 
vantage they could of the Democratic failure. They had al- 
ways claimed that tariff reform would injuriously affect Ameri- 
can business ; and behold ! here was their prophecy fulfilled. 
Throughout 1894 general business continued to be prostrate. 
The voters attributed their privations to the party in power, 
and returned an enormous Republican majority to the House 
of Representatives in the fall of 1894. 

If Messrs. McKinley and Hanna had been able to write 
history for the benefit of the McKinley cause, they could not 
have improved upon the actual course of events. The fail- 
ure of the Wilson Bill clinched every argument which could be 
made in favor of the candidate from Ohio. Protectionism was 
apparently vindicated. The McKinley Bill had ceased to be 
odious. Its author could claim a revision of the earlier adverse 
popular judgment. He could more plausibly than ever assert 
that his nomination and election would restore prosperity, be- 
cause its return was contingent upon a new application of the 
doctrine of high protection. Needless to say that these argu- 
ments were reiterated, emphasized and spread broadcast over 
the country. The Cleveland Leader, which was the most 
sedulous advocate of McKinley's nomination along the fore- 
going lines, was widely circulated for a period of over eighteen aj 
months at Mr. Hanna's personal expense. 

Mark Haima at that time had no inkling of the decisive € 
effect which the increasing importance of the "prosperity"" 
issue and its association with the McKinley candidacy would 
have upon his o^\^l subsequent political career. But if he had 
needed any further stimulus to exert all his energies in favor i 
of the nomination of his friend, the shape which political andi 



I 



THE MAKING OF A PRESIDENT 173 

business issues assumed would have supplied it. He was work- 
ing both on behalf of the political leader, in whom he most be- 
lieved, and on behalf of the idea, embodied in his owti life. For 
a man of his experience and outlook there could be no higher 
object of political leadership than the increased happiness 
which the American people would obtain from a revival of ac- 
tive business and remunerative employment. Mr. Hanna 
sincerely believed that the nomination and election of his friend 
constituted the best means of restoring to American busi- 
ness its normal condition of prosperous expansion and to the 
American people their customary amount of personal economic 
satisfaction. 

The possibility that he might by the same act fulfil his most 
cherished personal ambition, make his best friend President 
of the United States, and contribute most effectually to the wel- 
fare of his fellow-countrymen was so alluring to Mr. Hanna 
that it called for some sacrifice. For fourteen years he had been 
a business man with incidental political interests. Now that 
business prosperity itself was dependent in his opinion on the 
political triumph of his party, and the work of nominating his 
■ friend was reaching a critical phase, Mr. Hanna decided to be- 

• come a politician with incidental business interests. He de- 

• cided to sacrifice his own business career and his chance of greater 
' personal wealth to the opportunities and responsibilities of an 
I increasing participation in politics. 

In the fall of 1894 (after the Republican victory in the con- 

' gressional elections) Mark Hanna went to his brother, Mr. 

; Leonard Hanna, and declared that he proposed to withdraw 

I from active and responsible direction of the business of M. A. 

' Hanna & Co. He would, of course, always be ready to give 

' his advice, and when in Cleveland to lend his cooperation ; 

and he would retain a substantial interest in the partnership. 

But he did not wish to be tied down any longer to the routine 

of office work. He proposed to get some amusement out of 

what remained of his life, to go away when he wanted, and to do 

what he wanted. He offered to his brother as compensation 

for assuming the additional responsibility and work a part of 

his own interest in the profits of the firm ; and this offer was far 

more hberal than Leonard Hanna himself believed to be justi- 



174 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

fied by the transfer of work. In January, 1895, Mark Hanna 
was as good as his word. He ceased, thereafter, to do more 
than exercise an indirect supervision over the business whose 
expansion had been for almost twenty-eight years his domi- 
nant preoccupation, 

Mr. Hanna never intimated in his conversation with Mr. 
Leonard Hanna that he was retiring for the purpose of giving 
his time and attention to the nomination of McKinley. But 
such was the fact. He had come to the parting of the ways. 
PoHtics had become more absorbing than business. He de- 
cided to make his political ambition the salient one in his life. 
The work of nominating McKinley was reaching its final and 
critical stage. It required the better part of his time and at- 
tention. Nothing else should be allowed to stand in its way. 

That he realized, when he took this step, the consequences 
to himself of McKinley's nomination, there is no reason to 
believe. He was not a calculating man in respect to his own 
deeper interests. It was enough that the task of bringing about 
McKinley's nomination demanded almost undivided attention, 
that he saw a good chance of success and that in the distance 
there loomed vaguely an attractive probability of increased 
personal power and influence. His past life did nothing to 
prophecy that after McKinley's election he could occupy any 
political position but that of confidential adviser and political 
manager to the President. Not even his closest friends sus- 
pected at this time the strength of will, the flexibility of talent, 
the undeveloped power of personal popularity and the rare ex- 
ecutive abilities, which enabled him subsequently to grow up to 
one opportunity of power after another. 

Before Mr. Hanna withdrew from active business he had 
not pretended to keep his hands on all the details of the 
McKinley campaign. To a large extent the candidate had 
been his own general manager. No account of the promotion 
of his candidacy would be correct which understated the es- 
sential part played by Mr. McKinley himself. He had many 
friends and acquaintances among the Republican leaders in 
all parts of the Union, and he, himself, had established certain 
alliances which were of the utmost value to his personal cause. 
No important step was taken without consulting him, and his 



I 



THE MAKING OF A PRESIDENT 175 



counsel and cooperation were indispensable to the success of 
the enterprise. But there are limits which a candidate cannot 
exceed in working on behalf of his own nomination. Above 
all, his ov/n personal participation in the canvass cannot be- 
come too conspicuous. His most effective assistants, Mr, Hanna 
apart, were Major Charles Dick, the Chairman of the State 
Committee, and Mr. Joseph P. Smith, State Librarian of Ohio. 
These two gentlemen, and particularly the former, had been 
sent on missions all over the country, but chiefly in the South, 
preparing against the time when the work of actually electing 
the delegates must begin. 

Mr. Hanna's first step after retiring from business was to 
rent a house in Thomasville, Georgia, for five years. He had 
never liked the northern winters, and if he were going to devote 
the rest of his life (as he told his brother) to the enjoyment of 
a good time, what better way of doing it than that of living 
during the cold weather in the sunshine of the South. There, 
somewhat later, he was joined by his friend Governor McKinley, 
for Mark Hanna was a sociable man, and he could not enjoy 
a really good time unless he were surrounded by good company. 
The Governor appeared to be very good company. The house 
party was marred by an illness of the honored guest, which 
blocked in part a proposed excursion to Florida ; but when it 
was over every one agreed that the host and his guests had been 
benefited and entertained by the visit. 

A part of the entertainment prepared by Mr. Hanna for his 
guest and himself consisted in inviting a great deal of company 
to meet the Governor. Day after day the two friends sat in 
the sun parlor and received these visitors. They did not come 
merely from the vicinity of Thomasville. Gentlemen from all 
over the South flocked to Mr. Hanna's house, in order to have 
la little chat with the Governor and his friend. As befitted 
good Republicans, no color line was drawn. Negroes as well 
as white men were introduced to the amiable Mr. McKinley; 
and when they departed they had all been most favorably im- 
ipressed by his winning personality. The Governor showed his 
(appreciation of the efforts which his host was making to en- 
tertain him by being unusually courteous and affable. Mr. 
Melville Hanna, who also had a house in Thomasville and who 



17G MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

was present at some of these interviews, was very much im- 
pressed by the tact with which the host treated his stream of 
guests, the engaging candor with which he talked to them 
and the favorable impression made on them by Governor 

McKinley. 

In spite of Mr. McKinley's illness the house party was a. 
great success. The host had a particularly good time. When 
it was all over he could reasonably count upon having obtained 
for the benefit of his guest a considerable majority of the South- 
ern delegates to the Republican Convention of 1896. The 
Republican politicians of the South had been converted to 
McKinley, and the foundation of a pro-McKinley organiza- 
tion laid. The work was so well done, that although frantic 
efforts were subsequently made by able and unscrupulous 
Northern politicians to stem the tide in favor of IMcKinley 
in the South, they had small success. Mr. Hanna and Mr. 
McKinley had put a correct estimate on the situation in that 
part of the country. They had nothing to offer in return for 
the delegates that could not be offered on behalf of another 
candidate — viz. the Federal offices in the event of success — 
but they divined that personal attention means much to South- 
erners; and they had used most effectively the knowledge. 
By making I^IcKinley's personality familiar to Southern Re- 
publicans and popular among them, they created a species of 
pubUc opinion in the South favorable to his candidacy. It 
was a brilliant piece of tactics, which would only have occurred 
to a man of sound and kindly human feelings. 

During the spring of 1895, the McKinley campaign met with 
a discouraging set-back. At the State Convention held late 
in T^Iay at Zanesville, Mr Hanna and his friends lost control of 
the state organization. There were three candidates for gov- 
ernor, James H. Hoyt, Samuel K. Nash and Asa Bushnell. 
The pro-McKinley strength was divided between IMr. Hoyt, 
the Cleveland candidate, and I^Ir. Nash. A combination com- 
posed of Mr. Foraker, George B. Cox and A. L. Conger suc- 
ceeded in nominating Asa Bushnell. Foraker was indorsed 
for the next scnatorship — a course for which there was no 
precedent in Ohio. An associate of ISIr. Foraker, formerly 
his private secretary, Charles L. Kurtz, was made chairman 



THE MAKING OF A PRESIDENT 177 

of the State Committee, and his predecessor, Mr. Dick was 
demed a coveted nomination for State Auditor. It is true that 
an open breach was avoided by the indorsement of McKinley 
as a presidential candidate; but the McKinleyites were far 
from satisfied vvith their share of the spoils. The outcome was 
generally interpreted as a victory for Mr. Foraker; and Mr 
McKinley's opponents in other states used it to cast a doubt 
upon McKinley's ability to go to the Convention with the 
united support of his own state. In the end the consequences 
ot the defeat were, however, much more serious to Mr 
I Manna than they were to Mr. McKinley. 

' Up to this time the headquarters of the McKinley organiza- 
tion had been situated in Columbus. After the State Conven- 
tion It was moved to Mr. Hanna's own office in the Perry- 
Payne Building. For the first time he himself took charge of 
! all the details, and his chief assistant, besides those already 
named, was the Attorney General of the state, J. K. Richards 
Mr J. P Smith helped with the office work, while Major 
I Dick was kept chiefly on the road. But, of course, the summer 
continued to be a time of preliminary preparation. The Gov- 
ernor made several visits to Cleveland and while there was al- 
I ways a guest at Mr. Hanna's house. The same tactics were 
employed as those which had proved to be so successful during 
the previous winter at Thomasville. Many prominent Repub- 
Ihcans were invited to meet McKinley under the hospitable 
roof of his friend; and it was rare that the candidate failed to 
captivate his visitors. In the meantime general conditions 
jcontmued to be favorable. There was no revival of business 
to dimimsh the value of the wares offered by the ''advance 
agent of prosperity," and straw votes taken in many different 
^states indicated a strong tide of popular sentiment in McKinlev's 
favor, "^ 

Not until late in the fall of 1895 did Messrs. McKinley and 
Hanna learn the character and the extent of the opposition 
Avhich they would be obliged finally to overcome. This oppo- 
sition was not dangerous, because of the popularity of any al- 
iternative candidate. The only other candidates who had any 
'^laim on the nomination were Thomas B. Reed and ex-Presi- 
Icnt Harrison. Of these Mr. Reed's strength was confined to 



178 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

New England, and Mr. Harrison's, such as it was, to his o^n 
state. But although there were no popular centres of resist- - 
ance, it was hardly to be expected that the McKinley bark; 
would be allowed to sail unopposed into harbor. The Republi- 
can nominee seemed to be certain of election, and it would nott 
do to allow him to capture the Convention without any salu- 
tation of his political masters. Certain leading "bosses" 
and politicians began to ask what there was in this situation 
for them. Before submitting to McKinley's nomination could 
they not make good terms for themselves ? 

There is not, nor could there be, any written evidence of the 
negotiations which followed between these "bosses" and 
Messrs. McKinley and Hanna. But the following account oi\ 
the matter is not far from the truth. The latter were informed' 
that the delegations from certain states could be obtained on 
certain terms, and late in the fall Mr. Hanna went East in 
order to find out what these terms .were. Whatever they 
were they probably included one or two cabinet positions. Mr. 
Hanna returned, made his report, and seems to have urged the 
acceptance of the terms. It meant the removal of the only\ 
important obstacle to McKinley's nomination, and he could 
not resist the temptation. But McKinley himself absolutely) 
refused to consent to any such bargain. He was much more( 
ahve than was Mr. Hanna to the grave objections to pur- 
chase of the presidential nomination by the payment of cabi^ 
net positions. He declared that he would rather lose the nomin 
nation than obtain it by such dubious means. Mr. Hanna at 
once admitted that his friend was right, and the uncompromiss 
ing stand which Mr. McKinley had taken in the matter 
greatly increased his personal admiration of the man. 

The decision was reached that in case they had to face the 
opposition of the local political leaders, the fight would be made 
upon the issue that the "bosses" were opposing the people's 
choice. Eventually the contest assumed precisely that shape. 
On January 7 there was a conference in New York between 
Thomas C. Piatt, Senator Quay, Joseph H. Manley, Chaun- 
cey I. Filley and James S. Clarkson to devise means for pre^ 
venting the nomination of McKinley. The plan was adopted 
of trying to keep the delegates away from McKinley by en- 



1 



THE MAKING OF A PRESIDENT 179 

couraging the growth of "favorite sons" in all the Northern 
states. At the same time the experienced politicians who 
attended the conference decided to put up a stiff fight for the 
control of the Southern local and state conventions. They did 
not realize how thoroughly the preliminary work among the 
Southern Repubhcans on McKinley's behalf had already been 
accomplished. They expected to be able to capture a much 
larger percentage of the delegates than they actually suc- 
ceeded in doing. 

At the time when it was formed, the plan of campaign looked 
much more promising than it subsequently proved to be. The 
candidacy of Thomas B. Reed would hold New England. 
Thomas C. Piatt could deliver the delegation from New York 
to anybody he pleased, and he selected Levi P. Morton as an 
inspiring candidate. Senator Quay considered the transfer of 
his contingent to Reed, but finally decided that he himself was 
the favorite son of Pennsylvania. Iowa claimed the nomina- 
tion for Senator Allison. Besides these candidates, all of whom 
survived until the meeting of the National Convention, there 
were indications that Indiana might be kept true to ex-Presi- 
dent Harrison, Illinois to Senator CuUom and Minnesota to 
Senator Davis. The expectation was that in case the tide in 
favor of McKinley could be checked, other "favorite sons" 
Avould appear to take advantage of the vicissitudes of a divided 
Convention. 

At this critical stage in the canvass, everything depended on 
the ability of Mr. McKinley and his friends to keep alive an 
impression of the irresistibility of his candidacy. A majority of 
the Republican voters favored his nomination, but their pref- 
erence might be defeated — in case the local politicians came 
to believe that its defeat was probable or even possible. On the 
other hand, many of these poHticians, not publicly committed 
to another candidate, would make haste to join the procession 
as soon as they realized that it was really made up of the Elect. 
It was a case where nothing would succeed like success. 

Preparations were made immediately to establish pro- 
McKinley organizations in every state which was worth fight- 
ing for. In many important states confidential relations 
had already been established with political leaders of promi- 



180 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

ncncc who could be trusted to work for McKinley. In New 
Jersey the cooperation of Garret A. Hobart, subsequently Vice- 
President, was assured. In Maryland Senator Wellington could 
be counted upon for good work. In Michigan General Alger 
was a friend of both the candidate and Mr. Haima. In Min- 
nesota ex-Governor W. R. Merriam was an effective ally. In 
Wisconsin Henry C. Payne eventually helped to capture the 
state for McKinley. West of the Mississippi, with the ex- 
ception of Iowa and one or two other states, the McKinley 
sentiment was everywhere dominant. In all these localities 
the work was comparatively easy, and did not require very much 
time or cause much anxiety. 

In no part of the country did the contest become fiercer than 
south of the Mason and Dixon line. Mr. Harma had to fight 
very hard to prevent the McKinley organization in several im- 
portant Southern states from being broken up. The most per- 
plexing and troublesome crises occurred in Georgia, Alabama, 
Louisiana and Texas. The opposition was unscrupulous and 
was abundantly supplied with funds. It used all the tricks 
known to machine politicians, such as the calling of "snap" 
conventions in certain congressional districts. But the net 
results of a fight put by four of the ablest and most experienced 
politicians in the Repubhcan party was comparatively small. 
There were finally secured for Reed two votes in Alabama, 
two in Georgia, four in Louisiana, two and a half in North Caro- 
lina, one in Virginia and five in Texas. Mr. Piatt picked up for 
Morton one delegate from Alabama and two from Florida. 
Quay captured two in Georgia, one in Mississippi, and divided 
one in Louisiana with Allison. Mr. Clarkson, who had dispensed 
patronage during President Harrison's administration, obtained 
only three votes from Texas for the lowan candidate. These 
were small pickings, considering the eminence of these gentle- 
men as the gatherers of political fruit. They had been beaten 
at their own game. As Mr. Thomas C. Piatt, in his " Autobi- 
ography " (p. 331) says : "He (Mr. Hanna) had the South prac- 
tically solid before some of us waked up." But it was not simply 
a matter of organization. A genuine preference for McKinley 
had been created among the Southern Republicans; and, of 
course, he was helped in the South by his success in the North. 



THE MAKING OF A PRESIDENT 181 

Different methods were used in different doubtful Northern 
states. Indiana was one of the first among the waverers 
which it was possible to line up for McKinley. On February 
4 ex-President Harrison announced that he was not a candi- 
date. Mr. McKinley had some days before received confiden- 
tial information of the announcement, and an emissary, Charles 
Dick, was despatched to Indiana to take immediate ad- 
vantage of the withdrawal. He had a long secret interview 
with John K. Gowdy, chairman of the State Committee, which 
resulted in an understanding that the latter would work for 
Mr. McKinley. Before Mr. Dick returned the situation all over 
the state was thoroughly canvassed, and many consultations were 
held with local leaders, whose cooperation was necessary. Owing 
partly to the efficiency of Mr. Gowdy's work, and partly to the 
pro-McKinley popular sentiment, which was unusually strong 
in Indiana, the delegation from that state was obtained for 
McKinley. 

Nebraska was another state in which a special situation con- 
fronted the McKinley managers. A somewhat feeble local 
movement had been started in favor of General Manderson as 
a "favorite son," which • commanded the support of most of 
the local politicians. A special organization had, consequently, 
to be formed, which succeeded in having the delegates-at-large 
instructed for McKinley, in spite of the opposition of Sen- 
ator Thurston. In California, almost the only other Western 
state which required special exertions, the McKinley interest 
was confided to Judge James A. Waymire and Mr. J. C. Spear ; 
and they succeeded in bringing the state into line. When the 
Convention was finally held Mr. McKinley was supported by 
the delegations of all the states west of the Mississippi, except 
Iowa, the three votes from Utah and those of the seceding 
states. 

Opinions were divided among the McKinley managers 
whether any contest at all should be made in those Northern 
states, which were completely dominated by the local "bosses." 
But Mr. Hanna had the courage of his cause ; he insisted on 
fighting all along the line and in capturing local delegates wher- 
ever they could. Prominent Republicans both in New York 
and Pennsylvania were friendly to McKinley — far more so 



182 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

than the votes of those states subsequently indicated. Even 
as it was, eight votes were secured in Pennsylvania and seventeen 
in New York. A great deal of very effective work was also ac- 
complished in quietly favoring the election of delegates whose 
second choice would be McKinley. Mr. Hanna himself was 
far from objecting to the tactics pursued by their opponents. 
Thomas B. Reed was the only candidate he really feared, just 
as it was the only candidacy which was based upon genuine 
claims to recognition. If the opposition could have concen- 
trated on Reed, it might have become formidable. As it was, 
the " favorite son " policy was a confession of weakness, which 
could offer no effective resistance to a candidacy like that of 
McKinley, which gathered volume as it rolled along. 

Arrangements had been made to hold the Ohio State Conven- 
tion in March, so as to place Mr. McKinley formally in nomi- 
nation early in the final contest. It assembled on March 11 and 
was a most harmonious gathering — although the Foraker faction 
kept control of the state organization. James B. Foraker made 
the first of a long series of speeches nominating his former rival 
for the presidency. The delegates-at-large were divided be- 
tween the two factions, and consisted of Mr. Foraker, Governor 
BushncU, General Charles Grosvenor, and Mark Hanna. The 
platform emphasized the importance of protectionist legislation 
as essential to the revival of prosperity, but dodged the currency 
issue. It declared for sound money and the use of both metals, 
which were to be kept at a parity by international agreement or 
any other available means. In case a declaration in favor of a 
gold standard had been made at this time, the difficulties of the 
McKinley managers west of the Mississippi would have been 
very much increased. As it was, one State Convention after 
another began to instruct for McKinley. On March 19 
Wisconsin was definitely placed on his list. On April 11 it 
was joined by Oregon. Four days later Nebraska and North 
Dakota fell into line, and on April 29 Vermont, under the 
leadership of Senator Proctor, showed that Mr. Reed could even 
hold all of the delegates from New England. 

All this was encouraging, and together with the successes 
in the South it was almost convincing. But it was not entirely 
so. The McKinley candidacy needed the testimony of an em- 



THE MAKING OF A PRESIDENT 183 

phatic success in an important contested state. Illinois was 
selected both as a good point of resistance by the opponents of 
McKinley, and the best point of attack by his friends. The 
critical contest of the campaign occurred in that state. The 
local politicians, particularly in and about Chicago, had been 
pushing the candidacy of Senator Cullom. No basing-point 
for a McKinley organization could be found in the regular 
machine, and it was necessary to secure an independent leader, 
who would pull together the widespread sentiment in favor 
of McKinley. Such a leader was found in Mr. Chd,rles G. 
Dawes, the son of General R. Dawes, once a Congressman 
from an Ohio district. jV'Ir. Dawes, after interviews with both 
Mr. McKinley and Mr. Hanna, agreed to make the fight, and 
he was supported vigorously by Mr. Hanna himself. It was 
generally understood that while McKinley might be nominated 
without Illinois, the capture of that state would remove any 
possible doubt as to his triumph. Mr. McKinley himself went 
to Chicago in February and delivered a speech at the Marquette 
Club, which helped his candidacy. Mr. Dawes proved to be 
a capable organizer. The results of the district conventions 
were favorable ; but when the State Convention assembled late 
in April, the issue was still in doubt. A sharp struggle took 
place with the result dubious to the last. The margin was so 
narrow that an accident might tip the scales one way or the 
other. The fight continued for several days, on the last of 
which Mr. Hanna sat in his office in the Perry-Payne Building, 
telephone in hand, from noon until 10 p.m. He did not quit 
until he had learned that Senator Cullom had withdrawn and 
the delegates-at-large had been instructed for McKinley. He 
could go home assured that the project conceived eight years 
earlier for the nomination of his friend had been successfully 
accomplished. 

Almost the whole cost of the campaign for Mr. McKinley's 
nomination was paid by Mr. Hanna. Apparently he expected 
in the beginning to obtain very much more assistance than that 
which he actually received. Early in 1896, when the demands 
upon him became very heavy, he cast about for some means of 
shifting the burden. He seriously considered the possibility 
of collecting a campaign fund, and had actually made prepara- 



184 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

tions to do so. But further reflection convinced him that to 
collect a fund for the purpose of nominating a candidate was 
a different thing from collecting an election fund. The appeal 
in the former case had to be made on personal rather than party 
grounds. So he made up his mind to pay the expenses himself. 
He did receive some help from Mr. McKinley's personal friends 
in Ohio and elsewhere, but its amount was small compared 
to the total expenses. First and last Mr. Hanna contributed 
something over $100,000 toward the expense of the canvass. 

One "hundred thousand dollars and over is a good deal of 
money; but it is not too much for the legitimate expenses of 
nominating a man for President under the convention system. 
Such a sum would not have gone very far in case corrupt 
methods had been used. As a matter of fact, corrupt methods 
were always expressly and absolutely forbidden by Mr. Hanna. 
Certain of his lieutenants, particularly in the South, would 
have been glad enough to have plenty of money to spend, but 
they did not get it. He was continually checking their zeal 
and refusing or pairing down their applications for funds. He 
carefully limited the purposes for which alone the money was 
to be spent. It was to pay the legitimate expenses of his as- 
sistants in organizing districts for McKinley in which a senti- 
ment favorable to the candidacy existed. He expressly warns 
them against any attempt to obtain merely purchasable votes. 

A few quotations will illustrate the kind of letters which he 
wrote to assistants, who were more preoccupied with the money 
they wanted to spend than they were scrupulous about the 
methods they used in spending it. On Nov. 5, 1895, he wrote 
to a correspondent in California: "I am in receipt of j'our favor 
of the 28th ult., and your draft for $500, which came to hand 
to-day, has been paid. The Governor's friends have not been 
called upon to contribute any money to his campaign, because 
he is very much averse to that method. Of course I appreciate 
that it will be necessary to do something towards the actual 
expenses of those who are willing to give time to his service, and 
that I am perfectly willing to do, but the use of money to in- 
fluence votes is not a method that I favor at all. This cam- 
paign must not be one in which money is used for other than 
necessary expenses." 



THE MAKING OF A PRESIDENT 185 

His letters to his lieutenants in the South all run to the same 
effect. During February and March, 1896, when the combina- 
tion against McKinley was using every device of the political 
professional to snatch the delegates away from McKinley, Mr. 
Hanna was overwhelmed with demands for money from his 
assistants in the South. He wrote to one correspondent late 
in January: "You are laboring under the impression that 
there is a liberal fund provided for distribution. Such is not 
the case. I am personally providing what seems to be necessary 
for such expenses as are legitimate. Mr. McKinley is most de- 
cidedly opposed to the expenditure of money along the line of 
purchasing support. Therefore I suggest that in districts 
where the sentiment is against us, from whatever cause, we had 
better avoid any fight. We will not find fault with you if you 
secure no districts which cannot be won on the merits of Mr. 
McKinley as a candidate." The difficulties under which he 
labored may be inferred from the following letter, written early 
in February : "I am in receipt of yours of the 3d and enclose a 
draft for S500, which is all I can possibly spare for the occasion. 
The fact is, my friend, I am at a point where I will have to put 
a stop on expenditures, until some of our friends come to our 
assistance, which up to date has not been done. Business is as 
bad as it was in '93, and I have had to borrow this money to 
send to you. My firm is as hard up as I am." So far from bfeing 
a campaign in which money was freely disbursed, the fight for 
Mr. McKinley's nomination was an example of the attainment 
of a striking political success without any but a very economical 
expenditure of money. 

In a speech made to his friends at the Union Club in Cleve- 
land after the Convention was over, Mr. Hanna declared he 
had been forbidden by Mr. McKinley to win the nomination 
by means of any pledge of office or remuneration. There is no 
evidence either in Mr. Hanna's correspondence or in the testi- 
mony of his associates that specific pledges were made to 
bestow particular offices on particular men. But many prom- 
ises were undoubtedly made that the local political leaders 
who worked for Mr. McKinley's nomination would in the event 
of success be "recognized" in the distribution of Federal pat- 
ronage. Again and again Mr. Hanna wrote to local politi- 



180 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

oiaus who woiv known to favor ]\Ir. IMcKinley that if thoy 
woulil i>rganize their district or state in his favor tliey wouUi 
be c'onsultiHl after the election in respect to the appointments. 
In so wording the promises, Mr. Hanna f recti himself and Mr. 
IMcKinley from specitic obligations. They could always re- 
ject any ]n-oposed appointment in case it seemed to them un- 
lit. The distinction between making a definite pledge and ad- 
mitting a general claim for "recognition" has a validity which 
should not be ignoreti, even by those who deplore any purchase 
of political support by the promise of official patronage. The 
American Civil Service can ne^'er become efficient unless such 
methods are abandoned ; but they are deeply rooted in our 
political practice, and their use was considered necessary to the 
nomination of Mr. McKinley. They were so essential a part 
of the political system, to which Mr. Hanna was accustomed, 
that he would have regarded their scrupulous avoidance as 
absurd. 

In telling his friends at the Union Club that ]\Ir. IMcKinley 
had forbidden the purchase of support by specific pledges, IMr. 
Hanna was probably thinking of the negotiations between him- 
self and the Eastern "bosses." He himself came to recognize 
that such bargains gravely compromised the public interest ; 
and the lesson which his friend had taught him was one which 
he did not forget. In the distribution of patronage after the 
election, most of the men who had contributinl effectively to 
Mr. jMcKinley's nomination received offices, but in spite of cer- 
tain mistakes an honest attempt was made to fill the higher 
offices with able and disinterested public servants. Both the 
President and his friend knew the value to the administration 
of good service and the danger of poor service. ^Under Mr. 
IMcKinley's stewardship the country was on the whole well 
served by its higher executive officials. The earlier mistakes 
were soon rectified, and the vacated offices were always filled 
by exceptionally strong administrators. 

The promise of Federal offices, like the expenditure of money, 
played, however, only a subordinate part in the nomination 
of jMr. McKinley. Some of the other candidates had money 
to spend and offices to promise; but they could make slight 
headway by virtue of such paddles. Mr. McKinley had behind 



THE MAKING OF A PRESIDENT 187 

him a currfTjt of popular favor, which was skilfully and 
Byfit^matically expIoit/:;d to the very limit. It mig>jt have pre- 
vailed, even if it had not been exploit/id, but neither the candi- 
date nor hiii friend was taking any chancers. The final .succ^^s 
was overwhelming, becau.se advantage had h>een seized of every 
opportunity to make it so, Tliat the opp^jrtunities were go<^xi 
dr^es not subtract from the rarity of the achievement. Mr. 
McKinley and Mr. Hanna succefide^l V^ecause they deserved 
to succeed. Back of everj' substantial kucc^;s in American 
politics, one may trace the influence of very personal and human 
forces, and the RepuVjlican nomination of 1896 was no exception. 
Mr. McKinley was a man who had the faculty of making 
friends, not becaase he actioally did very much for othiers, but 
becau.se of the amiability, the tact and the goo<^l taste he showed 
in all his pers^jnal relationships. By virtue of hi.s affability he 
usuallj' avoided making enemies, even when he failed to make 
friends. The men who would not fight on his side had no 
special reason for fighting again.st him, and he sought to be as 
ftcnipuloasly correct in his political methods as he was .scru- 
puloasly amiable in his personal relations. Added to this per- 
sonal availabilitj' as a candidate was hLs equally decisive sec- 
tional availability. The Middle W<%-t usually furnishes the 
Republican presidential candidates, becaase b\' location and 
outlook it Is more representative of the whole nation than an\' 
other part of the country'. Its local interests and traditions have 
something in common with the jnteres-ts and traditions both 
of the manufacturing East and the agricultural West. A candi- 
date from an Elastem state, such as Mr. Thomas B. Reed, 
asually lacks this advantage, and .starts for this reason under a 
grave handicap. The handicap Is the more severe in case his 
state Is small and bj' no means doubtful. Mr. McKinJey repre- 
sented, on the whole, a group of ideas and interests as nearly 
national as could any political leader of his own generation. 
Moreover, his personal and local merits as a candidate were 
raised to a higher power by the course of political and economic 
hlstor\' from 1890 to 1895. The panic of '93, the acuteness of 
the r««;ulting privations and the failure of the Wilson Bill gave 
real plausibility and enormoas political effect to the claim that 
he was the "advance agent" of prosperity. 



1S8 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

Mark Hanna seems to have been born and raised particularly 
for the purpose of exploiting these advantages. He loved Mc- 
Kinley as a man. He admired the politician. Whenever he 
had an enthusiasm, he could communicate it. He could make 
others believe in IVIcKinley as he did. He could impart his 
own energy of affection and conviction to the whole movement 
on behalf of his friend's nomination. He himself was the kind 
of American citizen whom McKinley could represent only. 
He embodied in his own person the enterprising, homogeneous, 
uncritical Americanism of the Middle West which, with all its- 
new organization and equipment, derived its vitality from the- 
earlier economic nationalism of the pioneer. Americans of^ 
this type had always associated the American system with ai 
generally diffused economic prosperity. Acute and widespread^ 
privation meant that the system was out of joint ; and unden 
the prevailing methods of stimulation by the government of all 
productive enterprise, the repair of the system became a polit-i 
ical responsibility. The restoration of the Republican partj^ 
to power and the election of McKinley assumed in his eyes the 
character of a patriotic mission. 

His substantial successes in politics, including the nominal 
tion of William INIcKinley, were born of the fact that he re-j 
mained an unspecialized American citizen, whose behavioi 
awakened responsive approval among other Americans of the 
same kind. He expressed a phase of public opinion, which whej 
aroused was all the more powerful, because it was only semi 
conscious and because it never could be completely expressed 
by lawyers or politicians. His ability to represent this element 
in the American political and economic life sharply di^ 
tinguished him from the ordinary political professional. Jus? 
as in business he never became a dislocated financier, so 
politics he never became the mere manipulator of a machine 
He cooperated with the machine politicians. He used manj 
of their methods. His standard of behavior in politics wa« 
not as high as his standard of behavior in business. When k 
supped with the Devil, he fished with a long spoon. But iii 
these respects he was faithful to his t>T3e. The t>-pical Americai 
has never been scrupulous about the means which he used iii 
order to accomplish what seemed to him a worthy purpose 



THE MAKING OF A PRESIDENT ISO 

:Mr. Hanna became more rather than less typical, because he 
used the professional politicians instead of fighting them. But 
he never became one of them ; and if he had done so, he 
would have been as successful in nominating IMcKinley as 
Thomas C. Piatt was in nominating Mr. Levi P. Morton. 

There is, I believe, no close parallel in American politics for 
the part which Mark Hanna played in the nomination of Mc- 
Kinley. Of course other men have labored faithfully and effi- 
ciently to make their friends or associates a presidential candi- 
date. A state "boss" is always calculating whether or not 
he cannot force some favorite candidate on the Convention. 
Presidents have sometimes had a good deal to do with the nam- 
ing of their successors. But when Mr. Hanna began to work 
first for Sherman and then for McKinley, he started with no 
leverage not possessed by hundreds of his fellow-citizens. He 
was merely a well-to-do business man with some small polit- 
ical experience. His special qualification for the task consisted 
merely in the fact that he wanted to do it. The will to nomi- 
nate a President aroused in its possessor the abilities necessary 
for its accomplishment. After he had failed with Sherman, 
his ambition was sweetened and sanctified by a warm and loj'al 
personal attachment to the new candidate himself. Mr. Hanna 
was aroused to still greater activity and still greater sacrifices, 
until the accomplishment of the task absorbed all his time and 
energy. He proved equal to one emergency after another. 
He selected good subordinates. He convinced and persuaded 
doubters. He converted to McKinley's support, a whole sec- 
tion of the country. He worked upon public opinion quite as 
much as he did upon individuals and in the most effective way. 
Gradually the possible candidate was made probable and then 
irresistible. The task was achieved. William McKinley became 
the Republican nominee for the presidency ; and Mark Hanna 
was no less responsible for the triumph than was the candidate 
himself. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE CONVENTION OF 1896 

By the first of May, 1896, Mark Hanna had every reason to 
believe that the nomination of Mr. McKinley was assured. A 
majority of the delegates were known to be favorable to his 
selection. It only remained to make assurance doubly sure by 
securing an organization of the Convention favorable to its 
prospective candidate. Such an organization was the more ' 
necessary because the fight in the South and elsewhere had re- 
sulted in the election of several contesting delegations, and iti 
was important that those favorable to Mr. McKinley should bei 
seated. As a matter of fact the greater victory included the) 
less. His prospective triumph assured him the control of thei 
National Committee. By virtue of this control definite plansf 
were made for the organization of the Convention, the nomina- 
tion for Vice-President and the several planks of the platform. 
A slate was prepared ; and the candidate himself in coopera-j 
tion with certain of his friends drew up a tentative draft of thei 
statement of true Republican principles and policies. 

The Convention assembled at St. Louis on Monday, June 
15. So far as the slate was concerned, the program was car-' 
ried through without a hitch. The temporary chairman wasi 
Mr. Charles W. Fairbanks of Indiana, the permanent chairman, 
Senator John M. Thurston of Nebraska. The Committee on 
Credentials paid no attention to any contesting delegations 
except those from Delaware and Texas, and in both cases the" 
McKinley delegates were seated. Thus the result became more 
than ever a foregone conclusion, although a show of resistance i 
continued. Thomas B. Reed, the only other serious candidate, , 
was placed in nomination by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge oi 
Massachusetts, but considerable as Mr. Reed's services had 
been to his party and his country, he remained a sectional ' 
candidate. As it was, Mr. McKinley obtained almost as many , 
votes in New England as Mr. Reed obtained in all the rest oi | 

190 



i 



THE CONVENTION OF 1896 191 

the country. The two wealthiest and most populous states in 
the Union made their better citizens blush by presenting candi- 
dates who had less than no claims for consideration. The 
candidate from Iowa, Senator Allison, was negligible outside 
of his own state. Mr. McKinley's name was placed before the 
Convention by Senator-elect James B. Foraker in a speech 
which was the more impressive because of the source from which 
it came. Mr. McKinley received 66U votes on the first 
ballot against 84^ for his closest rival, Mr. Thomas B. Reed. 
Sixty-two of the Reed delegates came from New England, and 
the rest chiefly from the South. Mr. McKinley had the Middle 
West and the West, with the exception of Iowa, almost solidly 
behind him, and he had made serious inroads upon the strength 
of his opponents in their own particular bailiwicks. His 
triumph was so decisive and overwhelming that no outsider 
could realize how much effort and contrivance had been spent 
upon making it irresistible. 

Inasmuch as Ohio had furnished the head of the ticket, the 
vice-presidential nomination, according to the prevailing 
practice, ought to go to some doubtful Eastern state. New 
York can usually claim the office under such conditions ; but 
in the present instance sound reasons could be urged why its 
claims could be ignored with impunity. The bitter opposition 
which Mr. Thomas C. Piatt had made to McKinley's nomina- 
tion had created a good deal of personal ill-feeling; and as a 
consequence there was no candidate from New York upon whom 
Republicans from that state could agree. But the considera- 
tion which probably had most weight was the fact that with 
the word "gold" already inserted in the platform New York 
could hardly be called a doubtful state. On the other hand, 
the adjoining state of New Jersej'' submitted an eligible candi- 
date in Mr. Garret A. Hobart, who had done much to strengthen 
the Republican party in his owti neighborhood. Mr. Hobart 
was well loiown to Mr. Hanna, and in all probability his nomina- 
:tion had been scheduled for some time. It was practically 
announced early in June. He was a lawyer and a business 
man with an exclusively local reputation ; and if he did little 
to strengthen the ticket he did nothing to weaken it. He proved 
.to be a useful coadjutor both during the campaign and after 



192 MARCUS ALONZO IIANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

the election ; and he subsequently exercised more influence in 
the counsels of the :ulniiuistr;ition than is usually the case with 
the occupant of the vice-presidential chair. 

In all the foregoing respects the Convention proved to be a 
perfectly manageable body, which submitted good-naturedly 
to the will of its conquerors. But in one essential matter it 
proved to be far less manageable, and its rebellious indepen- 
dence in this respect made havoc of all the carefully laid plans 
of Mr. McKinley and Mr. Hanna. Their hands were forced in 
relation to the most important plank in the platform. The 
candidate had to accept a new definition of Republican policy 
in respect to the currency — and one which in its effect might 
well change the whole nature of the campaign. The man who 
had been nominated as the High Priest of Protection found 
his favorite policy converted into comparative insignificance 
and himself forced to assume a precise and vigorous attitude 
in relation to a question which he had always preferred to leave 
vague and ambiguous. Instead of running on an issue with 
which his whole political career was associated, he was forced to 
run on an issue upon which his own record was equivocal, and 
which in his opinion gravely compromised the success of hie 

candidacy. 

A great deal of controversy has arisen about the way in whicl 
the word "gold" was inserted in the currency plank of the Re 
publican platform of 1896. A number of different claimants 
have insisted upon their individual responsibility for its insep 
tion. Among others Mr. Thomas C. Piatt asserts withou 
blushing that the honor chiefly, if not exclusively, belongs tcj 
him. In his " Autobiography " (p. 310) he declares that " in 189( 
I scored what I regard as the greatest achievement of my po 
litical career. That was the insertion of the gold plank in th«l 
St. Louis platform." In his account of the matter he admit 
that Senator Lodge and certain friends of Mr. McKinley, sucl 
as H. H. Kohlsaat, Myron T. Herrick, Henry C. Payne an( 
William R. Merriam, may also have contributed to the resull 
but if the assertion quoted above be taken as literally true, th 
real hero of the incident must be Mr. Thomas C. Piatt. H 
has admitted it himself. On the other hand, Mr. Kohlsaat de 
Clares no less emphatically that he, more than any other singl 



r 



I THE CONVENTION OF 1896 193 

individual, was responsible for the appearance of the magical 
word. Another equally vigorous claimant is Mr. James B. 
Foraker. He was the chairman of the Committee on Reso- 
lutions, and he asserts emphatically that no matter what 
palaver may have preceded the final decision, the Committee, 
of which he was chairman, was really responsible both for the 
general wording of the plank and for the actual insertion of 
"gold" before the phrase "standard of value." 

Notwithstanding these conflicting claims and the more or 
less conflicting evidence upon which they are based, the sev- 
eral accounts agree upon certain fundamental facts; and a 
fairly complete story of what actually occurred can be pieced 
together, v/nich derives nothing from controverted testimony. 
There will remain certain minor ambiguities and conflicts of 
evidence, which may be partly explained by the failure of cer- 
tain witnesses to take account of events which had occurred with- 
out their knowledge on other parts of a complicated and con- 
fused field of action. In spite of these minor conflicts, some of 
which I shall attempt to explain, a sufficiently complete story 
can be told, which includes no incidents which are not intrinsi- 
cally probable or which are not confirmed by more than one 
witness. 

Undoubtedly Mr. McKinley himself wanted to subordinate the 
currency issue to that of protection. His own record in relation 
to legislation affecting the standard of value had been vacil- 
lating. He was a bimetallist, and had stood for the use of both 
gold and silver in the currency of the United States without 
inquiring too closely whether the means actually used to force 
silver into circulation had or had not tended to lower the stand- 
ard of value. His personal political prominence had been due 
to his earnest and insistent advocacy of the doctrine of high 
protection, and he feared that if the currency issue were sharply 
defined, the result would necessarily be (as it was) a diminution 
in price of his own political and economic stock-in-trade. Con- 
siderations of party expediency reenforced his own personal 
predilections. His party was united on the issue of protection. 
It was divided on the currency issue. There were "silver 
Republicans, " and they all came from a part of the country in 
which he personally was very popular. The sentiment in favor 



194 MARCUS ALONZO IIANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

of 11 single goUl standard was strongest in New England and 
the Middle States, which were more or less opposed to his nomi- 
nation. If he had favored unequivocally a single gold standard, 
his candidacy would have been weakened among his friends, 
whiU^ his opponents would have merely shifted their ground 
of attack. Not unnaturally he proposed to evade the issue by 
staniling for "sound money" without defining precisely what 
sound money really was. 

Mark Hanna's personal attitude was different from that of 
Mr. McKinley. He was enough of a banker to realize that the 
business of the country was suffering far more from uncertainty 
about the standard of value than it was from foreign competi- 
tion. Mr. William R. Merriam tells of certain interesting 
conversations which took place in August, 1895, on the porch 
of Mr. Hanna's house overlooking Lake Erie, between himself, 
Russell A. Alger, Mr. Hanna and Mr. McKinley, in which both 
the political and economic aspects of the prospective campaign 
issues were thoroughly discussed. In these conventions Mr. 
McKinley was, in I\Ir. Merriam's o\\ii phrase, "obsessed" with 
the idea of the tariff as the dominant issue of the coming cam- 
paign. l\Tr. Hanna, on the other hand, was, in Mr. Merriam's 
wokIs, "in favor of committing the Republican party to gold, 
as the sole basis of currency, and he was anxious and willing 
to lend his aid to the furtherance of this policy." 

Inasmuch as ISIr. McKinley was the candidate, his views pre- 
vailed. Throughout the whole preliminary canvass the cur- 
rency issue was evaded. The State Conventions, in which the 
candidate's personal influence prevailed, declared for sound 
money and the coinage of silver in so far as it could be kept oil 
a parity with gold. Conventions such as that of Wyoming 
instructed their delegates for ISIcKinley, while declaring at th6 
same time for the free and unlimited coinage of silver. INIr J 
Hanna as the manager of the campaign realized how much I\Ir^ 
INIcKinlev's ambiguous attitude on the currency was helpini 
the canvass in the Western States, and he probably desired ai 
much as McKinley did that any more precise definition of th< 
issue slu)uld at least be postponed until after ]\Ir. McKinley'i 
nomination was assured. In no event would he have insistec 
upon any opinion of his o^^^l in respect to an important matte 



THE CONVENTION OF 1896 195 

of public policy in antagonism to that of Lis candidate and 
friend. 

McKinley's opinion remained unchanged until the very eve 
of the Convention. Mr. Kohlsaat asserts that on Sunday 
June 7, he spent hours trying to convince Mr. McKinley of the 
necessity of inserting the word "gold" in the platform The 
latter argued in opposition that ninety per cent of his mail and 
his callers were against such decisive action, and he asserted 
emphatically that thirty days after the Convention was over 
the currency question would drop out of sight and the tariff 
would become the sole issue. The curn-ncy plank, tentatively 
drawn by Mr. McKinhy and his immediate advisers, embodied 
his resolution to keep the currency issue subordinate and vague 
According to Mr. Foraker, Mr. J. K. Richards came to him at 
Cincinnati some days before the date of the meeting of the Con- 
vention, bringing with him direct from Canton some resolu- 
tions m regard to the money and the tariff questions prepared 
by the friends of Mr. McKinley with his approval. Mr 
Foraker had been slated for the Committee on Resolutions" 
and the McKinley draft was placed in his hands with a view to 
having them incorporated in the platform. The currency 
plank as handed to Mr. Foraker began as follows : — 

"The Republican party is unreservedly for sound money 
It IS unalterably opposed to every effort to debase our currency 
or disturb our credit. It resumed specie payments in 1879 
and since then it has made and kept every dollar as good as 
gold This It will continue to do, maintaining all the money 
of the United States, whether gold, silver or paper, at par with 
the best money of the world and up to the standard of the most 
enlightened governments. 

"The Republican party favors the use of silver along with 
gold to the fullest extent consistent with the maintenance of 
the parity of the two metals. It would welcome bimetallism 
based upon an international ratio, but until that can be secured 
It IS the plain duty of the United States to maintain our prc'sent 
standard, and we are therefore opposed under existing conditions 
to the free and unlimited coinage of silver at sixteen to one " 

The resolutions mentioned by Mr. Foraker were placed in 
bis. hands on Monday or Tuesday, June 8 or 9. Mr Fora- 



196 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

kor, however, did not reach St. Louis until Saturday morning; 
and in the meantime a good deal had been happening there 
and elsewhere in respect to the currency plank. Mr. Hanna 
had already gone to St. Louis. When he arrived he had in his pos- 
session a draft of certain resolutions, presumably the same which 
had been taken to Mr. Foraker by Mr. J. K. Richards. He was 
joined in St. Louis early in the week by a number of Mr. McKin- 
ley's friends and supporters ; and in the group a lively discus- 
sion almost immediately arose as to the precise wording which 
should be adopted in defining the currency policy of the Republi- 
can party. This group consisted in the beginning of Senator 
Redfield Proctor of Vermont, Colonel Myron T. Herrick, General 
Osborne and Mr. Hanna himself. Mr. Hanna was so busy in 
rounding up his delegates and in attending to other details that 
he could not give much of his time to the conferences over the 
platform, but he was in and out and knew what was going on. 

Towards the middle of the week the group of gentlemen par- 
ticipating in 'these conferences was increased by several acces- 
sions from the number of Mr. McKinley's friends in other 
states, among whom may be mentioned Mr. Henry C. Payne, 
William R. Merriam and Melville E. Stone. After his arrival 
Mr. Henry C. Payne became particularly active in getting the 
conference together and in having the platform typewritten 
anew, after every change, and in having copies supplied to each 
participant. On Wednesday morning Mr. Hanna handed to 
Mr. Payne the draft of the currency plank as prepared by Mc- 
Kinley with the request that it be revised by the conference 
and put into final shape. The discussion continued on Thurs- 
day. After an agreement had been reached on certain changes 
Mr. Payne was asked to prepare another draft for discussion 
on the following day, which was Friday. 

On Friday morning Mr. H. H. Kohlsaat of Chicago joined 
the conference, having come over from Chicago in response to 
a telegram particularly for that purpose. Mr. Kohlsaat's re- 
lation to the whole matter was peculiar. He was a friend of 
long-standing both of Mr. McKinley and Mr. Hanna. He had, 
of course, been favorable to the former's nomination, but in 
the newspapers which he controlled he had combined an earnest 
advocacy of Mr. McKinley's selection with an even more ear- 



THE CONVENTION OF 1896 197 

nest and insistent advocacy of the single gold standard. He 
states that he had not been allowed by Mr. McKinley and Mr. 
Hanna to assist in the contest for the delegation from Illinois, 
because they were embarrassed by his attitude on the currency 
question. With the addition of Mr. Kohlsaat the members of 
the conference consisted of Mr. Payne, Colonel Herrick, Senator 
Proctor, ex-Governor Merriam and Mr. Stone. Mr. Hanna 
was present a certain part of the time, but he had so many other 
matters which required his attention that he was frequently 
being called off. 

There is some conflict of testimony as to proceedings of the 
conference on Friday. Colonel Herrick states that the final draft 
had been substantially submitted and accepted on Friday morn- 
ing. Mr. Kohlsaat, on the other hand, declares that in the draft 
forming the basis of discussion at the beginning of the confer- 
ence the word "gold" was omitted. This draft read as follows : 

"The Republican party is unreservedly for sound money. 
It caused the enactment of the law providing for the resumption 
of specie payments in 1879. Since then every dollar has been 
as good as gold. We are unalterably opposed to every measure 
calculated to debase our currency or impair the credit of our 
country. We are therefore opposed to the free and unlimited 
coinage of silver except by agreement with the leading com- 
mercial nations of Europe, and until such agreement can be 
obtained we believe that the existing gold standard should be 
preserved. We favor the use of silver as currency, but to the 
extent only that its parity with gold can be maintained, and we 
favor all measures designed to maintain inviolably the money 
of the United States, whether coin or paper, at the present 
standard, the standard of the most enlightened nations of the 
earth." 

The foregoing draft was furnished by Colonel Herrick. It differs 
in one or two minor respects, and in one essential respect, from 
the draft which, according to Mr. Kohlsaat, formed the basis 
for discussion at the conference of Friday. The minor differ- 
ences are merely matters of order and may be ignored. The 
essential difference turns upon the insertion of the word "gold" 
before "standard." According to Mr. Herrick the draft pre- 
pared by Mr. Payne contained the word "gold." According 



198 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

to Mr. Kohlsaat the decision to insert that word was reached 
only after a protracted discussion and a sharp controversy 
between liimself and Mr. Hanna. Not until four o'clock in the 
afternoon, after Mr. Hanna had withdrawn, was an agreement 
obtained. In view of the unanimity of his friends Mr. Haima 
gave his consent and agreed to urge its acceptance on Mr. 
McKinley. It was Colonel Herrick who telegraphed to the candi- 
date and obtained his approval. According to the testimony 
of Colonel Herrick, Mr. Kohlsaat, Mr. Merriam and Senator 
Proctor, the whole matter was settled, so far as Mr. McKinley 
and his friends were concerned, by Friday night. 

In the several accounts of these conferences, the one doubtful 
point is whether or not the word "gold" was containt^d in the 
draft prepared by Mr. Payne. The matter is not of great 
importance, except in respect to Mr. Kohlsaat's claim that he, 
more than any single individual, was responsible for its insertion 
and that he was called a " d — d fool " by Mr. Hanna for his pains. 
The only available account from Mr. Hamia himself of his 
own relation to the gold plank is contained in the following 
letter to A. K. McClure, written on June 28; 1900. 

"My dear Mr. McClure: — 

"I am in receipt of yours of the 21st inst., which has just been 
reached in my accumulation of letters. I do not care to have 
go into print all that I told you personally in regard to the gold 
plank of the St. Louis platform. When I went to St. Louis I 
took with me a memorandum on the tariff and financial questions 
drawn by Mr. McKinley. During all the discussions there 
prior to the action of the Committee on Resolutions I showed it 
to a few friends and had it rewritten by the Hon. J. K. Richards, 
the present U. S. Solicitor General. It was but slightly changed 
by those who considered it before it went to the Committee and 
as presented was passed by the Committee with little or no 
change. My part of the business was to harmonize all sections 
and prevent any discussion of the subject outside the Committee 
which would line up any factions against it (except the ultra 
silver men). In that I succeeded, and felt willing to give all the 
credit claimed by those who assisted. The original memoran- 
dum is in the possession of a personal friend, whom I do not care 



THE CONVENTION OF 1896 199 

to name without his consent. The whole thing was managed 
in order to succeed in getting what we got, and that was my only 
interest. 

"Sincerely yours, 

"M. A. Hanna." 

The foregoing letter, while it throws no light upon the time 
and occasion of the insertion of the decisive word into the draft 
supplies the clew which enables us to interpret Mr. Hanna's 
own behavior, both during these conferences and thereafter. 
He himself was in favor of the gold standard, and in favor of a 
declaration to that effect. But partly because of his loyalty 
to Mr. McKinley, and partly because he did not want any 
decisive step taken until the sentiment of the delegates had been 
disclosed, he preferred to have his hand forced, and he did not 
want to have it forced too soon. Although a decision, so far 
as Mr. McKinley and his friends were concerned, had been 
reached on Friday, public announcement of the fact was scrupu- 
lously avoided ; and Mr. Hanna evidently proposed to avoid it 
as long as he could. It was essential, considering the divergence 
of opinion among Mr. McKinley's supporters, that the candidate's 
official representative should not assume the position of publicly 
and explicitly asking the Convention to adopt the gold stand- 
ard. Mr. McKinley's personal popularity would suffer much 
less in case every superficial fact pointed to the conclusion 
that the gold standard was being forced on him by an irresistible 
party sentiment. 

As a matter of fact such was the case. As the delegates 
gathered in St. Louis, the friends of the gold standard learned 
for the first time their own strength. Business men east of the 
Mississippi had been reaching the conclusion that the country 
could never emerge from the existing depression until a gold 
standard of value was assured. They and their representatives 
learned at St. Louis that this opinion had become almost unan- 
imous among responsible and well-informed men. Mr. Hanna re- 
ceived shoals of telegrams from business men of all degrees of im- 
portance insisting upon such action. The substantial unanimity 
of this sentiment among Republican leaders, particularly in the 
Middle West, clinched the matter. Mr. McKinley would not 



200 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

have consented to any decisive utterance, had he not been con- 
li vinced that the great majority of his friends and his party were 
unalterably in favor of it. Every one of the participants in the 
preliminary conferences considered it desirable, and their 
united recommendation constituted a constraining force which 
Mr. McKinley could not ignore. Such being the case, any 
controversy as to the precise time and occasion of the insertion 
of the word "gold" into the actual draft becomes of small im- 
portance. It would have been inserted anyway, not by any 
one man or by the representatives of any one section, but 
because the influential members of the party, except in the 
Far West, had become united on the subject. Credit, however, 
particularly attaches to those Middle Western politicians and 
business men, who had the intelligence to understand and the 
courage to insist that the day for equivocation in relation to 
this essential issue had passed, and who persuaded Mr. McKinley 
that he must stand on a gold platform even at some sacrifice of 
personal prestige and perhaps at some risk of personal success. 
If Mr. McKinley had failed to consent to the insertion of 
the word "gold," and had prevailed upon all his intimate 
friends to assume the same attitude, he might possibly have 
prevented his own nomination. At all events, as soon as Mr. 
McKinley's opponents arrived, they immediately began an 
attack on what was manifestly the weak point in the IMcKinley 
fortifications. They knew that his nomination was assured, 
unless, perchance, he could be placed in opposition to the will 
of the Convention upon some important matter, and of course 
they represented a part of the country, in which public opinion 
in general was more united in favor of the gold standard than 
it was in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. Senators Lodge 
and Piatt reached St. Louis on Sunday. They learned of the 
controversy over the currency plank, but not about the decision 
actually reached. Senator Lodge went immediately to the 
IMcKinley headquarters. In his ensuing interview with INIr. 
Hanna the latter gave him no encouragement about the inser- 
tion into the plank of the word "gold." Mr. Lodge and ex- 
Governor Draper were shown the drafts of two resolutions, 
one of which was understood to have just arrived from Canton, 
and neither of which committed the party to the gold standard. 



THE CONVENTION OF 1896 201 

Senator Lodge then told Mr. Hanna that these drafts were 
unsatisfactory, and that Massachusetts would demand a vote 
upon any similar plank. After' some further talk Mr. Lodge 
went away, but he served notice on Mr. Hanna that efforts 
would be made to consolidate the sentiment in the Convention 
opposed to any "straddle." By Monday night the advocates 
of the gold standard had a majority of the Convention rounded 
up in favor of an unequivocal declaration in its favor. 

Of course, this was precisely the result which Mr. Hanna 
wanted. The evidence is conclusive that on Friday night 
both he and Mr. McKinley were prepared to accept a decisive 
gold plank (which he personally had always approved) but, 
as he says in his letter to Mr. McClure, his part of the business 
was "to prevent any discussion of the subject outside of the 
Committee on Resolutions, which would line up any factions 
against it." That is, he proposed to leave the action of the 
Convention on the plank uncertain, until the Committee on 
Resolutions could launch a draft which would have the great 
majority of the Convention behind it, and which would constrain 
the doubters and the trimmers. By failing to tell Senator 
Lodge that a draft containing the word "gold" had already been 
accepted by McKinley, he astutely accomplished his part of the 
business. He arranged for the consolidation of the sentiment 
in favor of the gold standard, while he prevented any consolida- 
tion of the sentiment against it, except on the part of the ir- 
reconcilables. If he had announced as early as Saturday or 
Sunday that a declaration in favor of the gold standard would 
be supported by Mr. McKinley's friends and probably adopted 
bj'- the Convention, a considerable number of half-hearted 
and double-minded delegates m.ight have been won over b}^ the 
leaders of the silver faction. And it might have seemed like 
a desertion by McKinley of the pro-silver delegates, who had 
been prevented by the ambiguity of the candidate's previous 
attitude from opposing him. 

The text of the plank as it came from the Committee and 
appeared in the platform, read as follows : — 

"The Republican party is unreservedly for sound money. It 
caused the enactment of a law providing for the resumption of 
specie payments in 1879. Since then every dollar has been 



202 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

as good as gold. We are unalterably opposed to every measure 
calculated to debase our currency or impair the credit of our 
country. We are therefore opposed to the free coinage of silver, 
except by international agreement with the leading commercial 
nations of the earth, which agreement we pledge ourselves to 
promote ; and until such agreement can be obtained the ex- 
isting gold standard must be maintained. All of our silver and 
paper currency must be maintained at parity with gold, and 
we favor all measures designed to maintain inviolably the obliga- 
tions of the United States, and all our money, whether coin or 
paper, at the present standard, the standard of the most en- 
lightened nations of the earth." 

- A comparison of the foregoing text with the draft worked up 
by the preliminary conference discloses only unimportant 
changes. The "free and unlimited coinage of silver" gets along 
without the "and unlimited." The draft wants an interna- 
tional agreement with "the commercial nations of Europe," 
whereas the plank is not satisfied with an agreement with 
anything less than the whole earth. The plank pledges the 
party to promote such an agreement, and the draft does not. 
In the plank "we believe that" is very properly omitted before 
"the existing gold standard," which is to be "preserved" in 
the plank and "maintained" in the draft. The plank does not 
favor the use of silver as currency, and in this respect it is 
a palpable improvement over the draft. The actual wording 
was the result of the scrutiny and cooperation of very many 
minds ; and on the whole the last version, the one actually 
presented to the Convention, is the best. But this version was, 
of course, the result of the closest kind of criticism applied to 
the original McKinley draft. It was first worked over by the 
conference of Mr. McKinley's friends and reduced to the form 
given on page 197. This form was placed in charge of William R. 
Merriam, the only man participating in the conference, who was 
also a member of the Committee on Resolutions. It was sub- 
mitted by him at Mr. Hanna's request to the chairman of the 
Committee and presumably received his approval. Mr. Merriam 
is the connecting link between the preliminary conferences of 
Mr. McKinley's supporters and the Committee on Resolutions. 
Mr. Foraker, in his pamphlet on "The Gold Plank," published 



THE CONVENTION OF 189C 203 

in 1899, asserts that the last draft which he received directly or 
indirectly from Mr. Hanna did not differ essentially from the 
form originally brought to him from Canton by Mr. J. K. 
Richards. On the other hand, Mr. Merriam states explicitly 
that he, at the suggestion of Mr. Hanna, submitted on Monday 
evening the draft containing the word "gold" to Mr. Foraker 
and Senators Lodge and Piatt. Senator Piatt in his "Autobiog- 
raphy " (p. 325) confirms this statement. "That night (Mon- 
day) Governor Merriam came to Mr. Piatt and Mr, Kohlsaat 
went to Mr. Lodge with the draft of the original Hanna plank 
with the word 'gold' inserted, and with the statement that 
it would be conceded." Mr. Kohlsaat confirms the statement 
of an interview with Mr. Lodge on Monday. Mr. Lodge him- 
self testifies that the gold plank was finally drafted at a meeting 
of the sub-Committee on Resolutions by Mr. Foraker, Gov- 
ernor Merriam, Edward Lauterbach of New York and himself. 
Senator Proctor and Colonel Herrick corroborate the assertion 
that the draft submitted by Mr. Merriam was identical with 
the draft upon which the preliminary conference had agreed 
three days earlier. This testimony establishes the method 
whereby the original draft was transmitted to the Committee 
on Resolutions ; and it justifies the inference that in respect 
to this detail Mr. Foraker's recollection must be at fault. 

The Committee on Resolutions is technically responsible 
for the plank, and to a certain extent was actually responsible. 
Most assuredly it improved the phrasing of the resolution; 
but the testimony on which the foregoing narrative is based 
proves that the Committee merely confirmed a decision which 
in substance had already been reached. Not until Monday 
night was Mr. Hanna ready to have the matter finally settled. 
In the meantime he was allowing the delegations from New 
York and Massachusetts to do the work for him of consolidating 
the sentiment of the Convention in favor of an unequivocal 
declaration in favor of the gold standard. Responsibility for 
the result was widely distributed. No one man or group of men 
can claim more than a minor share. The gentlemen who par- 
ticipated in the preliminary conferences and who secured Mr. 
McKinley's consent to the insertion of the word "gold, " played 
an important part, but even if no such conferences had taken 



204 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

place the Eastern states could and would have forced a declaration 
in favor of gold. The party had become more united on the 
subject than its leatlers realized, and there was a ginieral and 
an irresistible convergence towards the goal of a single standard. 
That the salutary result was accomplished without a more 
serious bolt on the part of disaffected delegates was due chiefly 
to the way in which Mr. Hanna manoeuvred to get the Con- 
vention to declare itself and so to give its action a higher 
momentum and a more authoritative force. As he says, "the 
whole affair was managed in order to succeed in getting ivhat we 
got," and he might have added at the smallest possible expense. 

None of the delegates to the Republican Convention of 1896 
who insisted upon a declaration in favor of a single gold standard 
realized what the consequences of their currency plank would 
be. They anticipated a certain amount of disaffection, but 
they judged that the Democrats were so hopelessly discredited 
that they could afford to alienate a few silver states in the Far 
West. As a matter of fact, the resulting bolt of the Colorado 
delegates and others did not look serious, and the Republican 
leaders returned to their homes, satisfied that their work had 
been well and safely done. But their satisfaction did not last 
very long. The subsequent action of the Den^ocratic National 
Convention did something to excuse, if not to justify, Mr. 
]\IcKinley's dread of the currency issue. For a while it looked 
as if the very means taken to establish the gold standard might 
result in its disestablishment. 

No wonder that the action of the Democrats at Chicago took 
every one by surprise, for it was without precedent in American ! 
political history. A Democratic administration was repudiated 
by a Convention of its own partisans. No attempt was made to 
defend its chief measures. On the contrary, the repeal of the i 
Silver Purchase Act, which had been accomplished under the 
leadership of a Democratic President, was violently attacked. : 
What the country needed was not less silver currency but more, \ 
and the best way to get it was to take down the bars and coin 
all the silver offered. The nomination was bestowed upon a i 
young and comparatively unknown man, who had carried the 
Convention away by his eloquent denunciation of a currency i 
system based on gold. Thus the Democrats refused to be placed 



THE CONVENTION OF 1896 205 

on the defensive. They took the aggressive, brushed aside 
the tariff issue and placed the RepubHcans on the defensive 
by declaring that the existing gold standard must be abandoned. 
The final effect of their action was to set up against a rich man's 
cure for the business depression a poor man's cure, and thereby 
to convert a controversy over a technical economic question 
into a sectional and class conflict. This transformation of the 
issue between the parties had such momentous consequences, 
not merely on the subsequent campaign, but upon the personal 
career of Mark Hanna, that in the sequel it will have to be 
examined with some care. 

On the day, however, that Mr. AIcKinley was nominated it 
looked as if the nomination was equivalent to election; and 
the delegates were thinking more of celeVjrating their perform- 
ance than of casting gloomy forebodings towards the future. 
The celeVjration began not unnaturally wath the offer of con- 
gratulations to the hero of the occasion, who, in the eyes of 
many of the delegates, was as much Mark Hanna as it was 
William McKinley. In the extent to which Mr. Hanna had 
contributed to his friend's nomination, the delegates recognized 
that they were confronted by a new thing under the sun of 
politics, and behind the new thing was a new man. The general 
appreciation of Mr. Hanna's performance could not be expressed 
with entire frankness, but during the regular process of making 
the nomination of Mr. McKinley unanimous, it did receive a 
certain outlet. The official report reads as follows : "A general 
call from all parts of the Hall was then heard for Mr. Hanna, 
who finally yielded to the entreaties of the audience and arose 
and said: — 

'"Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Convention : I am 
glad that there was one member of this Convention who has the 
intelligence at this late hour to ascertain how this nomination 
was made — by the people. What feeble efforts I may have 
contributed to the result, I am here to lay the fruits of it at the 
feet of my party and upon the altar of my country. [Applause.] 
I am ready now to take my position in the ranks alongside of my 
friend, General Henderson, and all other good Republicans from 
every state and do the duty of a soldier until next November.' 
[Great applause.]" 



206 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

Mark Hanna was, however, not to return to the ranks as long 
as he Hvecl. He was undoubtedly right in saying that McKinley 
had been the choice of a larger number of Republican voters than 
any other candidate : but no one knew better than himself that 
their choice might not have received effective expression, had it 
not been reenforced by very able and resolute assistance from 
Mr. McKinley himself and from Mr. McKinley's "confidential 
friend," Mark Hanna. The Republican leaders were also 
fully conscious of the ability with which the canvass had been 
managed, and they realized that even though Mr. McKinley 
Avere the popular choice for President as well as for Republican 
nominee, it would not do any harm to lend the people some effec- 
tive help in making their preference good. Mr. Hanna, both 
by his personal relations with the candidate and his proved 
ability as a political organizer, was marked as the director of 
the campaign of 1896. He was immediately selected as chair- 
man of the National Committee, which was, of course, absolutely 
in accordance with Mr. McKinley's OAvn wishes and intentions. 
Instead of retiring to the ranks, he became the field general of 
the whole army — a position for which his peculiar training and 
gifts had made him extraordinarily fit. He was an expert 
in organization, whose success in business had been based upon 
his ability to communicate his personal energy to a many-headed 
human machine. The work on behalf of Mr. McKinley's 
nomination had placed him closelj'' in touch with local political 
conditions in many of the most important states in the Union. 
Finally he had an instinctive grasp upon the human factors 
which at once complicate a political situation and endow it with 
humor and life. He never made a move in politics without feel- 
ing around for the support of a sufficient body of public opinion. 
He had just given an excellent illustration of his gift for the 
most effective kind of political management by arranging 
that the Convention declare for the single gold standard in a 
manner which caused the smallest possible friction within the 
party and the smallest possible loss of prestige to Mr. McKinley. 
The campaign was to afTord him an opportunity of so managing 
that the claims of Mr. McKinley for election and the superiority 
of the Republican platform were properly placed before a be- 
wildered and hesitating electorate. 



I 



THE CONVENTION OF 1896 207 

The ovation tendered him by the Convention was the first 
of several which showed the popular appreciation of his con- 
tribution to Mr. McKinley's nomination. When he returned 
to Cleveland, he was greeted by his townsfolk as a conquering 
hero. A huge crowd met him at the railroad station, cheered 
themselves hoarse, tried to listen to a few words of thanks and 
escorted him through the city to his own house. On the margin 
of the crowd was an old friend, who had not done as well in the 
world as had Mark Hanna — Mr. A. B. Hough. When Mr. 
Hough saw the greeting which the King-maker was receiving, 
he began to wonder whether the big man's head would be turned, 
and how far he would foregather with the less conspicuous of 
his former friends. He soon learned. Mark Hanna spotted Mr. 
Hough as he rode past in the street and immediately greeted 
him: "Hello, Hough!" Then inflating his chest he pointed 
to himself with mock pride and added: "Big Injun ! Me Big 
Injun !" 

The short speech which he made on this occasion deserves 
to be quoted in full : — 

"Mr. Chairman and Fellow-members of the Tippecanoe 
Club : This unexpected and almost overpowering reception robs 
me of what little power of speech I had left. I had little idea 
that anything I had done entitled me to such distinguished con- 
sideration. True, I have been for a number of months associated 
with a cause dear to the heart of every honest Republican 
in Ohio and every patriotic citizen of the United States. I 
entered upon that work because of my love for William Mc- ^ 
Kinley. No ambition even for honors such as are being accorded 
to me on this occasion prompted me. I acted out of love for 
my friend and devotion to my country. I lay no claim to the 
honors you have accorded to me. I could have done nothing 
without the people. All I have done is to help the people in 
gaining a result upon which they were united — the accession 
to the presidency of William McKinley." 

On the evening of Saturday, June 27, he was tendered a 
dinner at the Union Club by his lifelong friends and associates. 
It was attended by all the men in Cleveland among whom and 
with whom he had worked for forty years, and the warmth 
with which they congratulated him on his success must have 



208 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

been peculiarly gratifying to a man like Mr. Hanna, whose 
better life was composed so essentially of personal ties The 
dinner was private, but a version of the speech with which Mr. 
Hanna responded to the congratulations of his friends was 
published the next day. All agree that in making his short 
reply he was almost overpowered by his feelings. "He said that 
to him the greatest recompense for years of hard work was 
to know that his friends indorsed that work. He had acted 
simply as an American citizen and not as a politician or Boss. 
He was not a politician or 'Boss,' never desired to be one, 
never would be one. He responded to the voice of the American 
people and felt that in his final success in the nommation of 
William McKinley his work was to a great degree accomplished. 
When the question of the candidacy of his friend was broached 
McKinley had said in his conversation with him that he would 
not accept the nomination subject to a single pledge to any 
man of office or remuneration. Mr. Hanna told his friends 
that the conversation had made of him a better man and had 
changed the current of his thought." 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE CAMPAIGN OF 1896 

When Mr. Hanna was selected as chairman of the Repub- 
lican National Committee, no one anticipated how grave and 
difficult his task would be. As I have said, the action of the 
Democratic Convention took the country by surprise and 
completely upset the calculations and plans of the Repub- 
lican leaders. They had never suspected that the currency 
issue, even if made decisive, would entirely supersede the tariff 
issue. They never anticipated that by virtue of the currency 
issue the Democrats would be able to make political capital out 
of a period of economic privation, which had been appropriated 
for the political benefit of the Republicans and particularly of 
Mr. McKinley. A few weeks before the Republican Conven- 
tion it looked like plain sailing for the Republican nominee. 
A week after the Democratic Convention it looked as if by 
sheer audacity and misguided enthusiasm the Democrats had 
obtained the right of way, and that the Boy Orator would he 
carried into the White House on a flood of popular discontent. 

In July, 1896, no one could gauge accurately the actual range 
and force of this discontent. No one could estimate how far 
its ignorance could be enlightened or its impetus diverted. No 
one could tell with any confidence what effect Mr. Bryan's 
gallant and strenuous appeal to the American people would 
have upon the actual vote. But the extreme gravity of the 
situation was manifest. Many of the men most familiar with, 
the situation believe that if the election had been held in August,!^ 
or even in September, the Democratic candidate would have 
triumphed. Mr. Hanna himself inclined to this opinion. Mr. 
McKinley was gravely concerned, and chided certain of his 
friends for their participation in the decisive definition of the 
currency issue. In order to save the situation enormous exer- 
tions would be required, as well as a plan of campaign for which 
p 209 



210 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

there was as little precedent as there was for the situation 
itself. 

What took the Republican leaders by surprise was the peculiar 
effect on popular sentiment of the prevailing hard times. For 
some reason the business depression, coincident with Mr. 
Cleveland's second administration, stirred the American people 
more deeply and had graver political consequences than had any 
previous economic famine. The panics of 1837, 1873 and 
perhaps even of 1857 had caused as much, if not more, suffering 
and privation as did the panic of 1893. The effect, for instance, 
of the panic of 1873 upon the prevailing rate of wages was more 
depressing than was the effect of the panic of 1893. But in the 
earlier years the political consequences were not serious or 
dangerous. The result in 1837 was the subsequent election of a 
Whig in place of a Democratic administration. The result in 
1873 was the subsequent capture by the opposing party of the 
House of Representatives and Democratic plurality of the 
popular vote in the presidential campaign of 1876. On each 
of these occasions, also, local economic heresies jumped to the 
surface in the Middle and Far West. But in neither case 'did 
these local economic heresies wax into a national issue and 
become a grave national peril. In neither case did it result in a 
campaign in which one of the great political parties declared that 
the effect of the prevailing economic system was to discriminate 
in favor of the possessor of loanable capital, and against the 
borrower, the wage-earner and the producer. The fact that so 
threatening an economic issue could be nationalized indicated 
the ebullition of unsuspected forces in American public opinion. 

The public opinion of the time, confused and ill-informed as 
it was, saw one truth very plainly, which was that the cause of 
the trouble lay deeper than the administration of a Democratic 
President and the passage of the Wilson Bill. It turned in the 
beginning instinctively toward Mr. Bryan because he provided 
the people with an apparently better reason for their privations 
and a more immediately effective cure. They felt vaguely 
that some essential economic force was operating to deprive , 
them of the share of economic goods to which they were ac- , 
customed ; and it was both plausible and comforting to attribute j 
that malevolent power to the men who controlled the money 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 189G 211 

of the country. Thus it came to pass that Mr. Bryan's speeches 
inevitably assumed more and more the character of appeals 
to a class interest, and this was just the aspect of the matter 
which so puzzled and alarmed his adversaries. Not since the 
campaign against the National Bank, had any issue arisen 
which encouraged loose talk about the "Money Power" and 
which made the poor feci that the rich were becoming fat at 
their expense. 

Fortunately, however, Mr. Bryan was appealing to and 
representing, not merely a class, but a sectional interest. For 
reasons already indicated, the economic dearth had caused the 
utmost suffering and privation among the farmers of the second 
tier of states west of the Mississippi. These people had gone 
heavily into debt upon the basis of expectations which had 
been frustrated by poor crops, low prices and the disturbed 
condition of credit. They turned willingly towards a change 
in the currency system which might provide them with cheaper 
money. But there was no reason why the desire for cheaper 
money should appeal either to farmers who were relatively 
prosperous, or to the wage-earners in the industries of the 
country. After the first burst of enthusiasm had been spent 
over a candidate and a platform which made a strong bid for 
popular sympathy, there was a fair chance that the more prev- 
alent interests opposed to cheap money would assert them- 
selves. The one thing necessary was to establish clearly and 
to popularize the real meaning of the demand for the free coinage 
of silver and the real necessity of an assured standard of value. 
It would be the fault of the Republicans themselves in case a 
purely sectional interest were allowed to obtain a national 
following without having its false pretensions exposed. 

The manifest duty of the Republican National Committee 
was that of explaining fully to the voters the meaning of 
the Democratic platform and convincing them of its palpable 
error. It was confronted, that is, literally and exclusively, by a 
campaign of education, or better of instruction. We hear a 
great deal about campaigns of education, in many of Avhich the 
people who need and get the education are the people who run 
the campaign. But in this particular case a confused and 
hesitating mass of public opinion merely needed elementary 



212 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

instruction. The prevailing popular discontent was receiving 
a well-intentioned but erroneous economic expression. A sec- 
tional economic interest was demanding a change in the currency 
system, which from the point of view of sound economics 
was entirely and inexcusably wrong. Unlike the controversy 
between free trade and protection, it was not a matter of two 
divergent economic policies, each of which expressed under cer- 
tain conditions a valid political interest and a sound economic 
truth. It was a matter of undermining by thorough discussion 
and explanation the foundations of a dangerous and obvious 
mistake. 

Mark Hanna and the other Republican leaders soon under- 
stood the kind of campaign work which the situation demanded. 
They decided to oppose Mr. Bryan's personal appeal to the 
American people with an exhaustive and systematic educational 
canvass of the country. There was no hesitation and doubt as 
to the kind of strategy needed. The difficulty consisted in 
collecting, organizing, equipping and distributing among its 
proper fields of action a large enough army to carry out the 
strategic plan. The prevalence of the heresy, the confusion 
of public opinion, the uncertainty as to the actual force of 
the Democratic candidate's personal appeal, and the general 
obliteration of the usual sign-posts and land-marks made it 
necessary to cover an enormously extended territory with 
operations devised to meet both the local and the general needs 
of the situation. 

In previous campaigns the National Committee could count 
upon certain states as indubitably Republican and certain other 
states as indubitably Democratic. Only the appearance of a 
fight had to be made in such neighborhoods. The real work 
was done in half a dozen doubtful states, and the Committee 
could plan with some assurance the methods necessary to secure 
the best results within these areas. In 1896 all this was changed. 
Of course some states could still be placed indubitably in one 
column or the other, and there were a few states, ordinarily 
doubtful, which were sure to cast their vote either for the 
golden-mouthed or the silver-tongued candidate. But no one 
knew where certain parts of the West stood. The Middle West, 
the Far West and the Pacific Coast were all more or less in 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1896 213 

doubt. The result was that instead of a campaign carried on 
in a few dubious states, the field of action was enlarged to in- 
clude half the country ; and within this enlarged field of action 
an unprecedented amount of campaign work had to be accom- 
plished. 

The exigencies of the campaign necessitated certain depar- 
tures from the customary methods of organization. For a num- 
ber of reasons the work devolved to a much larger extent than 
usual upon the National Committee. The time was short. 
An enormous amount of properly correlated work had to be 
accomplished with the utmost possible efficiency. Since it 
was to be a campaign of instruction, the educational agencies 
had to be concentrated upon the areas in which they could do 
most good, and they had to be supplied with really instructive 
material. The State Committees could not be trusted with as 
much responsibility as they had been accustomed to exercise. 
The National Committee, instead of being a kind of central 
agency of the State Committees, became the general staff of the 
whole army. The State Committees carried out its orders. 
Such was the inevitable effect of a campaign which stirred 
public opinion as it had not been stirred since the war, and which 
raised an issue i];ivolving not merely the national prosperity, 
but the national honor and credit. 

It was also a result of naming a man like Mark Hanna as the 
chairman of the Committee. He was not merely the nominal 
head of the campaign. He was the real leader of the Committee, 
the real architect of its plans, the real engineer of its machinery 
and to a certain extent the real source of its energy. In the 
work of the campaign no one was more intimately associated 
with him than the treasurer of the Committee, the late Mr. 
Cornelius N. Bliss, and no one testifies more cordially to his 
unremitting labor, his unflagging energy, his thorough grasp 
of the work in all its aspects, his quick insight into the different 
needs bom of different situations and his fertility in meeting 
special needs with special measures. 

As one necessary preliminary measure he reorganized the 

executive offices of the Committee. In the past its methods 

had not conformed to sound business standards. Mr. Hanna 

, introduced a better system of bookkeeping and auditing, 



214 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

SO that there would be a proper account kept of the way in which 
the funds of the Committee were spent. Another innovation 
was the estabUshment of two headquarters, one in New York 
and one in Chicago. In the beginning he anticipated that the 
Eastern office would be the more important, but the large 
amount of work which was necessitated in tlie West by the 
disaffection in that region demanded an independent organi- 
zation. As the campaign developed, this double-headed or- 
ganization was justified by the event. Chicago became the 
real centre of the educational part of the campaign, because of 
its proximity to the doubtful states. 

Mr. Hanna had intended to divide his own attention about 
equally between the two headquarters, but as the campaign 
progressed his personal responsibility for raising money to pay 
the expense of the Committee kept him a large part of the time 
in New York. He needed, consequently, a peculiarly efficient 
local organization in Chicago, and he secured it by associating 
with him in the work unusually able men. The vice-chairman 
in charge of the office was Mr. Henry C. Payne of Wisconsin, 
who is said to be one of the most successful campaign managers 
of that period. With him was associated Charles G. Dawes, 
who had proved his abilities in the fight made liy McKinley's 
friends for Illinois, Winfield T. Durbin of Indiana and Cyrus 
Lehmd, Jr., of Kansas. The subordinates were all men with 
whom Mr. Hanna had already worked and in whose abilities 
he had confidence. Major Charles Dick was secretary to the 
committee and tiie working head of the organization. William 
M. Hahn, formerly chairman of the Ohio State Committee, was 
in charge of the Bureau of Speakers, and Perry Heath took care 
of the press matter. In New York, besides ]\Ir. Cornelius N. 
Bliss, the work was divided among Senator Quay, Joseph Man- 
ley of Maine, Powell Clayton of Arkansas and N. B. Scott of 
West Virginia. 

One of the major necessities of the campaign as a whole was 
the adoption of some measure which would counteract the effect 
of Mr. Bryan's personal stumjMng tour, — a tour which covered 
a large part of the country and aroused great popular sympathy 
and interest. Of course the countermove was to keep Mr. 
McKinley's ingratiating personality as much as possible before 



£ 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1896 215 

the public ; but the Republican candidate cherished a high 
respect for the proprieties of political life and refused to con- 
sider a competing tour of his own. It was arranged, conse- 
quently, that inasmuch as McKinley could not go to the people, 
tiie people must come to McKinley. The latter abjured the 
stump, but when his supporters paid him a visit, he could ad- 
dress them from his own front porch. This idea was employed 
and developed to the very limit. Several times a week dele- 
gations of loyal Republicans came to Canton from all points of 
the compass to pay their respects to the candidate. The chair- 
man of the delegation would make a short speech, telling Mr. 
JNIcKinley a few little truths with which he was already familiar, 
and ]\Ir. McKinley would answer at smaller or greater length, 
according to the importance of the delegation or the require- 
ments of the general campaign at that particular juncture. 
These delegations were not mere committees. They frequently 
included some thousands of people and had to be carried to 
Canton in trains of several sections. 

It is characteristic both of Mr. Hanna and Mr. McKinlej- 
that every detail of these visitations was carefully prearranged. 
The candidate was not taking any chance of a reference by some 
alliterative chairman to the party of Silver, Sacerdotalism and 
Sedition. In the first place, while many of the pilgrimages were 
the result of a genuine desire on the part of enthusiastic Re- 
publicans to gaze upon their candidate, others were deliberately 
planned by the Committee for the sake of their effect both upon 
the pilgrims and upon public opinion. But, whether instigated 
or spontaneous, Mr. McKinley always had to know in advance 
just what the chairman was going to say. The general pro- 
cedure was something as follows : A letter would be sent to the 
National Committee or to Canton, stating that a delegation of 
farmers, railroad employees, cigar-makers, wholesale merchants, 
Presbyterians or what-not would, if convenient, call on Mr. 
McKinley on such a day. An answer would immediately be 
returned expressing pleasure at the idea, but requesting that 
the head of the delegation make a preliminary visit to the can- 
didate. When he appeared, Mr. McKinley would greet him 
warmly and ask: "You are going to represent the delegation 
and make some remarks. What are you going to say?" The 



216 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

reply would usually be: "Oh ! I don't know. Anything that 
occurs to me." Then Mr. McKinley would point out the in- 
conveniences of such a course and request that a copy of the 
address be sent to him in advance, and he usually warned his 
interlocutor that he might make certain suggestions looking 
towards the revision of the speech. 

In one instance, according to ex-Senator Charles Dick, a man 
took his speech to Canton, all written out, and at McKinley's 
request read it aloud to the candidate. After he had finished 
Mr. McKinley said: "My friend, that is a splendid speech, 
a magnificent speech. No one could have prepared a better 
one. There are many occasions on which it would be precisely 
the right thing to say ; but is it quite suitable to this peculiar 
occasion? Sound and sober as it is from your standpoint, I 
must consider its effect from the party's standpoint. Now you 
go home and write a speech along the lines I indicate, and send 
me a copy of it." In this particular case, even the second 
version was .thoroughly blue-pencilled until it satisfied the exi- 
gent candidate. Such a method was not calculated to produce 
bursts of personal eloquence on the part of the chairman of the 
delegation, but the candidate preferred himself to provide the 
eloquence. Knowing as he did in advance just what the chair- 
man would say, his own answer was carefully prepared. He 
had secretaries to dig up any information he needed, but he 
always conscientiously wrote out the speech itself. If it were 
short, he would memorize it. If it were long, he would read it. 
In consequence, his addresses to the American people during 
the campaign, beginning with the letter of acceptance, were 
unusually able and raised him in the estimation of many of his 
earlier opponents. He made a genuine personal contribution 
to the discussion of the dominant issue and extorted increasing 
respect from general public opinion. As the campaign pro- 
gressed and the strain began to count, Mr. Bryan's speeches de- 
teriorated both in dignity and poignancy, while those of Mr. 
McKinley maintained an even level of sobriety, pertinence 
and good sense. 

Mr. McKinley was only the leader of an army of speakers 
who were preaching the same doctrine to the American people. 
The Republicans had a great advantage over the Democrats 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1896 217 

in the number of speakers of ability at their disposal, who knew 
what they were talking about and believed in it. The National 
Committee took full advantage of their resources. They col- 
lected a body of 1400 campaigners, paid their expenses and sent 
them wherever their services were most needed. In the doubt- 
ful states the canvass was most exhaustive and more careful 
than ever before in the history of the country. The agents of the 
committee penetrated, wherever necessary, into every election 
district and held small local meetings. Hand in hand with these 
meetings went an equally thorough circulation of campaign 
literature. There are good reasons for believing that this work 
was really efficient. Early in September, for instance, a care- 
ful canvass of Iowa indicated a probable majority for Bryan 
in that state. During the next six wieeks, speakers and cam- 
paign documents were poured into every town and village. In 
October the results of another canvass convinced the Committee 
that the state was safe for McKinley. 

Even more elaborate were the provisions made for the dis- 
tribution of campaign literature. This feature of the canvass 
increased in importance as it progressed, and finally attained 
a wholly unexpected volume and momentum. The greater 
part of the responsibility fell upon the Chicago headquarters, 
and this fact made the work performed at Chicago relatively 
more important than that performed in New York. Over 
100,000,000 documents were shipped from the Chicago ofl&ce, 
whereas not more than 20,000,000 were sent out from New 
York. In addition the Congressional Committee at Washing- 
ton circulated a great deal of printed matter. The material 
was derived from many sources, — chiefly from Mr. McKinley's 
own speeches and from those which various congressmen had 
made at different times on behalf of sound money, A pamphlet 
of forty pages, dealing with the silver question in a conversa- 
tional way, although one of the longest of the documents, proved 
to be one of the most popular, A majority of these pamphlets 
dealt with the currency issue ; but towards the end of the 
campaign, as the effect of the early hurrah for Bryan and free 
silver wore off, an increasing demand was made upon the 
Committee for protectionist reading matter. Something like 
275 different pamphlets and leaflets were circulated, and they 



218 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

were printed in German, French, Spanish, Italian, Swedish^ 
Norwegian, Danish, Dutch and Hebrew, as well as English. 

The National Committee had this reading matter prepared, 
but it was usually shipped to the State Committees for actual 
distribution. To a constantly increasing extent, however, the 
documents were sent direct to individuals from Chicago. They 
found by experience that the State and County Committees 
frequently did not cooperate with sufficient energy or sufficient 
intelligence in the distribution of the reading matter. Two 
weeks before the election, so it is said, several carloads of 
pamphlets had not been unloaded from the freight cars at Co- 
lumbus, Ohio. The Committee also distributed material di- 
rect to the newspapers. Country journals with an aggregate 
circulation of 1,650,000 received three and one-half columns 
of specially prepared matter every week. Another list of coun- 
try newspapers with an aggregate weekly circulation of about 
1,000,000 were furnished with plates, while to still another 
class were supplied ready prints. Of course cartoons, posters, 
inscriptions and buttons were manufactured by the carload — 
the most popular poster being the five-colored, single-sheet 
lithograph circulated as early as the St. Louis Convention, bear- 
ing a portrait of Mr. McKinley with the inscription underneath, 
"The Advance Agent of Prosperity." 

The most serious problem confronting the Committee was 
that of raising the money necessary to pay the expenses of the 
campaign. Its work had been organized on a scale unprec- 
edented in the political history of the country. The cost of 
its organization and of its bureaus of printed matter and 
speakers was substantially larger than that incurred during 
previous campaigns. It was not only conducting an unusually 
exhaustive and expensive educational canvass, but it was as- 
suming a good deal of work usually undertaken and paid for 
by the State Committees. Unless a proportionately large 
amount of money could be raised, the operations of the Na- 
tional Committee must be curtailed and Mr. McKinley's chances 
of success compromised. 

The task of raising this money belonged chiefly to Mr. Hanna. 
He had planned this tremendous campaign, and he must find 
the means of paying for it. Neither was it as obvious as it is 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1896 219 

now how this was to be done. The customary method of volun- 
tary contribution, helped out by a little dunning of the pro- 
tected manufacturers, was wholly insufficient. Money in suf- 
ficient volume could not be raised locally. The dominant 
issue endangered the national financial system, and the money 
must be collected in New York, the headquarters of national 
finance. In 1896 Mr. Hanna was not as well known in New 
York as he subsequently became. He was a Middle Western 
business man with incidental Eastern connections. Wall 
Street had not favored McKinley's nomination. Its idea of a 
presidential candidate had been Mr. Levi P. Morton. It re- 
quired some persuasion and some enlightenment before it would 
unloosen its purse to the required extent. 

Mr. James J. Hill states that on August 15, just when the 
strenuous work of the campaign was beginning, he met Mr 
Hanna by accident in New York and found the chairman very 
much discouraged. Mr. Hanna described the kind of work 
which was planned by the Committee and its necessarily heavy 
expense. He had been trying to raise the needed money, but 
with only small success. The financiers of New York would 
not contribute. It looked as if he might have to curtail his plan 
of campaign, and he was so disheartened that he talked about 
quitting. Mr. Hill immediately offered to accompany Mr. 
Hanna on a tour through the high places of Wall Street, and 
during the next five days they succeeded in collecting as much 
money as was immediately necessary. Thereafter Mr. Hanna 
did not need any further personal introduction to the leading 
American financiers. Once they knew him, he gained their 
confidence. They could contribute money to his war chest, with 
none of the qualms which they suffered when "giving up" to 
a regular political "boss." They knew that the money would 
be honestly and efficiently expended in order to secure the vic- 
tory of Republican candidates. Never again during the cam- 
paign of 1896 or during any campaign managed by Mr. Hanna 
was the National Committee pinched for cash. 

With the assistance of his newly established connections in 
the financial district, Mr. Hanna organized the business of 
collecting contributions as carefully as that of distributing 
reading matter. Inasmuch as the security of business and the 



220 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

credit system of the country were involved by the issues of the 
campaign, appeals were made to banks and business men, ir- 
respective of party affiliations, to come to the assistance of the 
National Committee. Responsible men were appointed to 
act as local agents in all fruitful neighborhoods for the purpose 
both of soliciting and receiving contributions. In the case of 
the banks, a regular assessment was levied, calculated, I be- 
lieve, at the rate of one-quarter of one per cent of their capital, 
and this assessment was for the most part paid. It is a matter 
of public record that large financial institutions such as the life 
insurance companies, were liberal contributors. The Stand- 
ard Oil Company gave $250,000, but this particular corporation 
was controlled by men who knew Mr. Hanna and was unusually 
generous. Other corporations and many individual capitalists 
and bankers made substantial but smaller donations. Mr. 
Hanna always did his best to convert the practice from a matter 
of political begging on the one side and donating on the other 
into a matter of systematic assessment according to the means 
of the individual and institution. 

Although the amount of money raised was, as I have said, 
very much larger than in any previous or in any subsequent 
campaign, its total has been grossly exaggerated. It has been 
estimated as high as S12,000,000; but such figures have been 
quoted only by the yellow journals and irresponsible politicians. 
A favorite estimate has been $6,000,000 or $7,000,000; but 
even this figure is almost twice as large as the money actually 
raised. The audited accounts of the Committee exhibited col- 
lections of a little less than $3,500,000, and some of this was not 
spent. Of this sum a little over $3,000,000 came from New York 
and its vicinity, and the rest from Chicago and its vicinity. 
In 1892 the campaign fund had amounted to about $1,500,000, 
but the Committee had finished some hundreds of thousands 
of dollars in debt. The money raised in New York was spent I 
chiefly in Chicago. To the $335,000 collected in the West! 
$1,565,000 was added from the East, thus bringing the expendi- 
tures of the Chicago headquarters up to $1,970,000. 

The way in which this money was spent affords a good idea 
of the scope of the Committee's work. The general office cost 
about $13,000 in the salaries of the staff and in miscellaneous 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1896 221 

expenses. The Bureau of Printed Matter spent approximately 
$472,000 in printing, and $32,000 in salaries and other expenses. 
The cost of the Bureau of Speakers was $140,000. The ship- 
ping department needed some $80,000. About $276,000 was 
contributed to the assistance of local and special organizations, 
and no less than $903,000 to the State Committees. These 
figures are official and confirm what has already been stated. 
The distribution of pamphlets, the furnishing of speakers and 
the expenses of organization account for half the expenses of the 
Chicago headquarters. The State Committees, on whom de- 
volved the work of special canvassing and of getting out the 
vote, claimed the remainder. A large appropriation to the 
Congressional Committee was furnished from New York. 
Towards the end of the campaign money came pouring in so 
abundantly that the Committee balanced its books with a hand- 
some surplus. It was urged upon Mr. Hanna that out of this 
surplus he reimburse himself for his expenses in nominating 
McKinley, but, of course, he refused to consider the sug- 
gestion. 

The question of political ethics involved by the collection of 
so much money from such doubtful sources, if it ever was a 
question, has been settled. American public opinion has em- 
phatically declared that no matter what the emergency, it will 
not permit the expenses of elections to be met by individuals 
and corporations which may have some benefit to derive from 
the result. But in 1896 public opinion had not declared itself, 
and the campaign fund of that year was unprecedented only in 
its size. It resulted from the development of a practice of 
long standing, founded on a real need of money with which to 
pay election expenses, and shared wherever opportunity per- 
mitted by both political parties. Mr. Hanna merely systema- 
tized and developed a practice which was rooted deep in con- 
temporary American political soil, and which was sanctioned 
both by custom and, as he believed, by necessity. 

The unnecessary complications of the American electoral 
system, requiring as it does the transaction of an enormous 
amount of political business, resulted inevitably in the develop- 
ment of political professionalism and in large election expenses. 
In the beginning these expenses were paid chiefly by candidates 



222 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

for office or office-holders. When suppHes from this source 
were diminished, while at the same time expenses were increas- 
ing, politicians naturally sought some other sources of income, 
and they found one of unexpected volume in the assessments 
which they could levy upon business men and corporations, 
which might be injured or benefited by legislative action. The 
worst form which the practice took consisted in the regular 
contribution by certain large corporations to the local machines 
of both parties for the purpose either of protection against legis- 
lative annoyance or for the purchase of favors. During the 
latter part of the eighties and the early nineties this practice 
of bipartisan contributions prevailed in all those states in 
which many corporations existed and in which the parties were 
evenly divided in strength. 

We have seen that an essential and a useful part of Mark 
Hanna's political activity had been connected with the collec- 
tion of election expenses for the Republican party in Cleveland 
and Ohio. Under prevailing conditions his combination of 
personal importance both in business and in politics was bound 
to result in some such connection. But he had never been 
associated with the least defensible phase of the practice — 
viz. that of contributing to both machines for exclusively busi- 
ness purposes. He was a Republican by conviction, and he 
spent his own money and collected money from others for the 
purpose of electing Republican candidates to office. As he be- 
came prominent in politics, however, it so happened that the 
business interests of the country came to rely more and more 
on the Republican party. It was the organization which sup- 
ported the protective tariff, which was more likely to control 
legislation in the wealthier states, and which finally declared 
in favor of the gold standard. The Republican party became 
the representative of the interests and needs of American busi- 
ness, and inevitably American business men came liberally to 
its support. Their liberality was increased because of the 
personal confidence of the business leaders in Mr. Hanna's 
efficiency and good faith, and because in 1896 these leaders, 
irrespective of partisan ties, knew that the free coinage of silver 
would be disastrous to the credit and prosperity of the country. 
In that year the Republicans happened to be entirely right and 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1896 223 

the Democrats entirely wrong upon a dominant economic issue. 
The economic inexperience and immaturity of large parts of 
the United States and the readiness of a section of the American 
people to follow untrustworthy leadership in economic matters, 
had given legitimate business an essential interest in the triumph 
of one of the political parties. Business men can scarcely be 
blamed for fighting the heresy in the only probably effective 
manner. 

Mark Hanna's reputation has suffered because of his con- 
nection with this system, but closely associated as he was with 
it, he is not to be held responsible for its blameworthy aspects. 
All he did was to make it more effective by virtue of his able 
expenditure of the money, of his systematization of the collec- 
tions, and by the confidence he inspired that the money would 
be well spent. The real responsibility is much more widely 
distributed. The system was the inevitable result of the po- 
litical organization and ideas of the American democracy and 
the relation which had come to prevail between the American 
political and economic life. As soon as it began to work in 
favor of only one of the two political parties it was bound to be 
condemned by public opinion ; but the methods adopted to do 
away with it may be compared to an attempt to obliterate the 
pest of flies merely by the slaughter of the insects. The ques- 
tion of how necessarily heavy election expenses are to be paid, 
particularly in exciting and closely contested campaigns, has 
been hitherto evaded. 

Mr. Hanna's opponents have, however, made him individually 
and in a sense culpably responsible for a traditional relation 
between politics and business. The economic issue dividing 
the parties in 1896 was easily perverted into a class issue, and 
the class issue was exploited for all it was worth by the other 
side. The vituperation which the representatives of the poor 
are privileged to pour out on the representatives of the well- 
to-do was concentrated on Mark Hanna. He became the 
victim of a series of personal attacks, which for their persistence, 
their falsity and their malignancy have rarely been equalled in 
the history of political invective. Mark Hanna was quoted 
and pictured to his fellow-countrymen as a sinister, corrupt type 
of the Money-man in politics — unscrupulous, inhumanly selfish, 



224 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

the sweater of his own employees, the relentless enemy of or- 
ganized labor, the besotted plutocrat, the incarnate dollar-mark. 

The peculiar malignancy of these attacks was due partly to 
certain undesirable innovations which had recently appeared 
in American journalism. Mr. William R. Hearst was begin- 
ning his career as a political yellow journalist. He was the 
first newspaper publisher to divine how much of an opportunity 
had been offered to sensational journalism by the increasing 
economic and political power of American wealth; and he 
divined also that the best way to use the opportunity would be 
to attach individual responsibility to the worst aspects of a 
system. The system must be concentrated in a few conspicuous 
individual examples, and they must be ferociously abused and 
persistently villified. The campaign of 1896 offered a rare 
chance to put this discovery into practice, and inevitably 
Mr. McKinley and Mr. Hanna, as the most conspicuous Re- 
publican leaders, were selected as the best victims of assault. 

The personal attack on Mark Hanna was begun somewhat 
before Mr. McKinley's nomination. Early in 1896 Alfred 
Henry Lewis had published in the New York Journal an article 
claiming to be an interview with Mr. Hanna and making him 
appear as a fool and a braggart. In a letter to the owner of 
the Journal, Mr. Hanna protested vigorously against the mis- 
representation, but without effect. Later the personal attack 
upon him was reduced to a system. For a while Mr. Lewis 
appears to have been stationed in Cleveland in order to tell 
lies about him. He was depicted as a monster of sordid and 
ruthless selfishness, who fattened himself and other men on the 
flesh and blood of the common people. This picture of the man 
was stamped sharply on the popular consciousness by the power- 
ful but brutal caricatures of Homer Davenport. Day after 
day he was portrayed with perverted ability and ingenuity as 
a Beast of Greed, until little by little a certain section of public 
opinion became infected by the poison. Journals of similar 
tendencies elsewhere in the country followed the lead with less 
ability and malignancy but with similar persistence. 

When these attacks began Mr. Hanna was strongly tempted 
to bring suit for libel and to cause the arrest of Alfred Henry 
Lewis; but after consulting with his friends he decided that 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1896 225 

Lewis and Hearst were aiming at precisely this result — with 
the expectation of profiting more from the notoriety and the 
appearance of persecution than they would lose in damages. 
So he decided to disregai:d the attacks, libellous as they probably 
were, and he continued to do so until the end. But he was 
very much wounded by them and suffered severely from the 
vindictive and grotesque misrepresentation. Like all men 
whose disposition was buoyant and expansive, and whose in- 
terests were active and external, he was dependent upon the 
approval of his associates. As the scope of his political activity 
increased, the approbation which he wanted and needed had 
to come from a widely extended public opinion. Hence, while 
he was by no means a thin-skinned man, and was accustomed to 
stand up under the blows received in the rough and tumble of 
political fighting, he could not but wince under a personal dis- 
tortion which was at once so gross and brutal, and yet so in- 
sidious and so impossible to combat. He had been brought up 
in the midst of the good-fellowship characteristic of the Middle 
West of the last generation. He was used to a social atmosphere 
of mutual confidence and a general and somewhat promiscuous 
companionship. He was accustomed to deal fairly with other 
men and to be dealt fairly with by them ; and this concentration 
upon his own person of a class hatred and suspicion wounded 
and staggered him, until he became accustomed to it, and was 
better able to estimate its real effect upon public opinion. 

The practice of attaching to a few conspicuous individuals a 
sort of criminal responsibility for widely diffused political and 
economic abuses and evils has, of course, persisted ; and in so 
large a country as the United States it has necessarily been per- 
formed by newspapers and magazines. The people who have 
participated in this pleasant and profitable business are recom- 
mended to ponder the following sentence from Aristotle's "Poli- 
tics," which is as true of the American Democracy as it was of 
that of Greece. "The gravest dangers to democracy," says 
Aristotle, usually occur "from the intemperate conduct of the 
demagogs, who force the propertied classes to combine by 
instituting malicious prosecutions against individuals or by 
inciting the masses against them as a body." 

Whatever one may think about the rights and wrongs of the 

Q 



226 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

campaign fund of 1896, it must be admitted that it served its 
purpose. If the campaign of instruction had not been organized 
on the scale undertaken by the National Committee, the elec- 
tion of Mr. McKinley might never have taken place. The 
Committee itself had for a long time no confidence in the success 
of its labors. Not until early in October did they begin to feel 
that the tide had been turned. The decisiveness of the result 
must not deceive any one into the belief that it was inevitable. 
The momentum and enthusiasm attained toward the middle 
of October by the campaign on behalf of Mr. McKinley's elec- 
tion was the result of the vigorous, exhaustive and systematic 
work performed by the National Committee during the two 
previous months. 

Mr. Hanna had a method of conducting a political campaign, 
not unlike that of a coach in training a foot-ball team. His 
attempt was gradually to wind up public opinion until it was 
charged with energy and confidence. The different moves in 
the campaign were planned in advance. All the general prep- 
arations were completed by a certain date. There followed 
some particularly vigorous special onslaughts on particular 
states; and when this work was satisfactorily accomplished, 
preparations were made to hold the ground while the hard work 
was concentrated on other less doubtful states. The execution 
of this general plan was carried out with the utmost care and 
vigor. The whole organization was inspired by the energy and I 
confidence of its chief. Gradually a contagious enthusiasm i 
and elan was communicated to the entire body. The different 
lines of work converged towards the end of the campaign. Their 
effect was cumulative, and their ultimate goal a condition of 
complete readiness on the Saturday night before election. 

In the year 1896 Mr. Hanna was conducting his first National 
Campaign, and he was, perhaps, over-eager. At all events he 
pushed his preparations somewhat too hard. He was ready 
for the election a week before election day, and he feared that 
he could not hold his ground. He was afraid, that is, of over- 
training ; and the last week was a period for him of intense un- 
easiness. And he might well be uneasy, because the country 
had been worked up to a condition of high excitement. By 
skilful management and a good cause the hurrah for Bryan 



i 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1896 227 

had been converted into a hurrah for McKinley. Enthusiasm 
could not be maintained at such a pitch, and if it began to sub- 
side, the recession might attain a dangerous volume. His fears 
proved to be unnecessary. The electorate had not only been 
worked up to a high state of enthusiasm, but they had been 
convinced. The victory on election day realized Mr. Hanna's 
highest hopes and expectations. No President since U. S. 
Grant entered office supported by so large a proportion of the 
American people as did William McKinley. 



CHAPTER XVII 

SENATOR BY APPOINTMENT 

The pleasantest days in the lives of American political leaders 
are those which succeed some decisive victory at the polls. 
Public opinion takes off its hat and bows to success. It likes 
to crown a victor with laurels and strew his path with roses. 
For the time being the press and the public are far more in- 
terested in good-naturedly hailing the conqueror than they are 
in calling up memories of past conflicts or in anticipating future 
troubles. The months succeeding Mr. McKinley's election 
were no exception to this rule. The business of the country 
had been relieved of an oppressive nightmare and a really dan- 
gerous threat, and public opinion had nothing but kind wishes 
for the men who had accomplished its deliverance. Mark 
Hanna shared with Mr. McKinley this warm bath of popular 
approval and interest. The whole country began to recognize 
how unprecedented it was that a citizen occupying no official 
position and without any personal hold on public opinion should 
have been able to contribute substantially to the nomination 
and election of a President. 

The way in which Mr. Hanna was regarded at this moment 
by an able and sympathetic fellow-Republican is very well ex- 
pressed in the following extract from a letter written by Mr. 
John Hay to a friend in Paris. "What a glorious record Mark 
Hanna has made this year ! I never knew him intimately until 
we went into this fight together, but my esteem and admiration 
for him have grown every hour. He is a born general in politics, 
perfectly square, honest and courageous, with a coup d^ceil for the 
battle-field and a knowledge of the enemy's weak points which 
is very remarkable. I do not know whether he will take a 
share in the government, but I hope he will." Many other 
people besides Mr. Hay were wondering what would be the 
future of this man, who could decide to make a President and i 

228 



SENATOR BY APPOINTMENT 229 

see "his will prevail. The expectation was that he would enter 
the new Cabinet, and as a Cabinet officer would continue to 
act as his friend's political adviser and manager. It was the 
obvious way of recognizing his past services and securing them 
for the future. 

So, at all events, thought the new President himself. On Nov. 
12, just a week after his election was assured, he wrote to Mr. 
Hanna : — 

"My dear Mr. Hanna: — 

"We are through with the election, and before turning to the 
future I want to express to you my great debt of gratitude for 
your generous life-long and devoted services to me. Was 
there ever such unselfish devotion before? Your unfaltering 
and increasing friendship through more than twenty years 
has been to me an encouragement and a source of strength which 
I am sure you have never realized, but which I have con- 
stantly felt and for which I thank you from the bottom of my 
heart. The recollection of all those years of uninterrupted 
loyalty and affection, of mutual confidences and growing regard 
fill me with emotions too deep for pen to portray. I want you to 
know, but I cannot find the right words to tell you, how much I 
appreciate your friendship and faith. God bless and prosper 
you and yours is my constant prayer. 

"Now to the future. I turn to you irresistibly. I want 
you as one of my chief associates in the conduct of the govern- 
ment. From what you have so frequently and generously said 
to me in the past, I know that you prefer not to accept any such 
position, but still I feel that you ought to consider it a patriotic 
duty to accept one of the Cabinet offices, which I want to fill with 
men of the highest character and qualifications. I want you to 
take this tender under the most serious consideration and to 
permit no previous expressed convictions to deter you from the 
performance of a great public duty. 

"May I not expect to see you here very soon? Please give 
to Mrs. Hanna and the family the sincere personal regards of 
^Mrs. McKinley and myself. 

"Your friend, 

"William McKinley." 



230 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

The Cabinet position which Mr. McKinley had in mind when 
he wrote this letter was that of Postmaster-General. Mr. 
Hanna refused it. During the next few months the two friends 
were constantly consulting about the make-up of the new ad- 
ministration and the selections for the higher offices within the 
gift of the President. There is evidence that at least for a while 
Mr. McKinley continued to urge Mr. Hanna to accept a position 
in his Cabinet. On Feb. 18, 1897, when the work of Cabinet- 
making was coming to an end, the President-elect wrote to Mr. 
Hanna: "It has been my dearest wish ever since I was elected 
to the presidency to have you accept a place in my Cabinet. 
This you have known for months and are already in receipt of a 
letter from me, urging you to accept a position in the adminis- 
tration, written a few days after the election. You then stated 
to me that you could under no circumstances accept a Cabinet 
place, and have many times declined both publicly and per- 
sonally to have your name considered in that connection. As 
from time to time I have determined upon various distinguished 
gentlemen for the several departments, I have hoped and 
so stated to you at every convenient opportunity that you 
would yet conclude to accept the Postmaster-Generalship. 
You have as often declined, and since our conversation on 
Tuesday last, I have reluctantly concluded that I cannot induce 
you to take this or any other Cabinet position. You know how 
deeply I regret this determination and how highly I appreciate 
your life-long devotion to me. You have said that if you could 
not enter the Senate, you would not enter public life at all. 
No one, I am sure, is more desirous of your success than myself, 
and no one appreciates more deeply how helpful and influential 
you could be in that position." There follows a statement of 
Mr. McKinley's decision to appoint James A. Gary of Balti- 
more to the Postmaster-Generalship. 

The reasons for Mark Hanna's persistent refusal of a Cabi- 
net position are sufficiently obvious. If he did so, he would 
apparently be accepting compensation for his services in 
contributing to his friend's nomination and election. He was 
willing to compensate all the other leading contributors to that i 
result, but he refused to compromise his independence by accept- 
ing a reward for his services from the man he had served. A\ 



I 



SENATOR BY APPOINTMENT 231 

Cabinet office would constitute a recognition of the past, but it 
would open up only a restricted vista of future accomplishment. 
If he was going to become anything more than a political 
manager, he must seek and obtain an elective office of some 
dignity and distinction. Only by express popular approval 
could his prominence in American public life become au- 
thentic. 

There resulted from this sound and proper decision one inter- 
esting consequence. His peculiar abilities and his life-long 
training adapted him above all to an administrative position. 
He was one of the most capable organizers and executives in 
American public life. He possessed in unusual measure the gift, 
so rare in public officers, of infusing the energy and momentum 
of his own will and plans unto his subordinates. Yet he never 
occupied an important executive office in the American govern- 
ment. His peculiar gifts and training were exercised for the 
benefit of his friends and his party, but they were never exer- 
cised directly in the interests of efficient public administration. 
The reason undoubtedly was that he was not the man to take 
orders from anybody else. As an executive he could not be a 
subordinate, and probably he would never have accepted a 
Cabinet position even from a President, to whose election he 
had not himself essentially contributed. 

But, as is intimated in Mr. McKinley's letter, there was an 
office, within the gift not of the President but of the General 
Assembly of his own state, which he undoubtedly wanted very 
much, — the position of Senator. That was the one Federal ■ 
office which carried with it enough political and social prestige 
and gave him enough official leverage to authenticate his peculiar 
unofficial personal influence. Neither was his desire to be 
Senator the result merely of his recent success. For years a 
Senatorship seemed to him, as it has seemed to many of his 
fellow-countrymen, the prize in American politics best worth 
having, the Presidency of course, excepted. 

There is some interesting testimony as to Mr. Haima's 
attitude towards a seat in the Senate. In January, 1892, Mr. 
James H. Dempsey, of the firm of Squire, Sanders and Dempsey, 
who had long been Mr. Hanna's attorneys, chanced to be in 
Columbus during the thick of the fight, which Mr. Hanna was 



232 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

conducting for the purpose of reelecting Mr. Sherman to the 
Senate. On the Sunday preceding the nominating caucus, 
the poHticians had for the most part gone home, and the day was 
comparatively quiet. Mr. Dempsey spent most of it in Mr. 
Hanna's room at the hotel. They talked confidentially about 
many things, such as Sheraian's lively and persistent ambition 
to be President and of his career in the Senate. During their 
conversation Mr. Hanna said, "Jim, there is one thing I should 
like to have, but it is the thing I can never get." When asked what 
it was, he replied, "I would rather be Senator in Congress than 
have any other office on earth." He said this with great feeling, 
adding that he had never betrayed his ambition to any other 
person. Mr. Dempsey inquired why, if he felt that way, he 
did not seek an election. Sherman was an old man, and could 
not well be a candidate again. With his position in the Republi- 
can party in Ohio, he would have as good a chance as any one 
else of taking Mr. Sherman's place. Mr. Hanna replied, 
"Jim, I could no more be elected Senator than I could fly." 

Mr. Hanna's reluctance to offer himself as candidate for 
Senator in 1892 may be easily explained. The Senatorship was 
a peculiarly important and responsible oSice. He had done 
nothing to qualify himself for such a distinction. If he tried to 
get it, he might have been obliged to use methods, similar to 
those which other business men had used, to secure the necessary 
legislative votes. His strength in politics consisted in the fact 
that he was working hard, not for himself, but for friends who 
had a valid claim upon public recognition; and he still sin- 
cerely believed that his best chance of shining in public life was 
by means of reflected light. Yet when President-elect McKinley 
offered him the job of becoming one of the official reflectors of 
the light radiated by the highest office in the land, he refused, 
and hankered after the position which, five years before, had 
seemed beyond his reach. A Senatorship need no longer be 
considered an impossibility, and he might not unreasonably 
believe that his services to his party and his country had given 
him a sufficiently valid claim even upon so important an 
office. 

But how was he to become Senator ? His old political friend 
and associate, Mr. Sherman, occupied one of Ohio's seats in the 






SENATOR BY APPOINTMENT 233 

Senate. His term expired on March 4, 1899. The other seat 
was or would be filled by his former friend, Mr. James B. For- 
aker, who had been elected in January, 1896, and would take 
office on March 4, 1897. The election of Mr. Foraker's suc- 
cessor was still five years away, so that the realization of his 
ambition had to be postponed for a long time, unless he could 
occupy Mr. Sherman's place. 

The facts that Senator Sherman did resign his seat in order 
to accept the Secretaryship of State and that Mark Hanna was 
appointed his successor have resulted in certain ugly charges 
against Mr. Hanna and Mr. McKinley. They have been re- 
proached with appointing an unfit man to the Secretaryship of 
State at a critical moment in the foreign relations of the country 
in order to make room for Mr. Hanna in the Senate, and they 
have also been reproached with sacrificing Mr. Sherman's 
personal interests for Mr. Hanna's benefit. These charges have 
not been made by irresponsible newspapers or political enemies, 
but by serious biographers and historians. Mr. Sherman him- 
self finally came to believe that he had been ill-treated. His 
life, by Senator Theodore E. Burton (p. 415), contains the follow- 
ing passage: "It cannot be denied, however, that he left the 
Cabinet with a degree of bitterness towards President McKinley, 
more by reason of his practical supersession than for any other 
reason, but also with the belief that he had been transferred to 
the Cabinet to make room for another in the Senate." 

The facts in relation to Mr. Sherman's appointment of Secre- 
tary of State, in so far as they are now accessible, do not support 
the claim that Mr. Sherman had any grievance on that score. 
It would, of course, be absurd to insist that Mr. Sherman's 
transferral to the State Department was made without any 
consideration of the desirable vacancy thereby created; but 
whatever Mr. Sherman's later attitude in the matter, he was 
glad at the time that his Secretaryship might mean Mr. Hanna's 
Senatorship. If he had any reluctance in resigning, it was 
because he feared Mr. Hanna would not succeed him. These 
statements are all established by Senator Sherman's own corre- 
spondence. 

On Nov. 13, 1896, Mr. Sherman wrote the following letter to 
Mr. Hanna : — 



234 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

\ . " My dear Hanna : — 

"I was very much disappointed in not meeting you in New 
York. I went there on railroad business and remained down 
town so long that when I received your card at the hotel you had 
gone from the city. You have got the reputation of being a 
'King-maker,' and I want to see you, not to help me to be a 
King, a President, a Senator or a Cabinet Officer, but as an old 
and valued friend, whom I would be glad to help and encourage, 
if, indeed, he is not already so well situated that offers and public 
honors will not tempt him to exchange his position as a private 
citizen of greatest influence in the United States. I know well 
enough that your 'head is level,' and if you wish to enter political 
life, I would like to be one of your backers. Whether you do or 
not, I would like very much to have a talk with you. Can't you, 
when next you visit New York, come to Washington and stay a 
day or two at my house ? Mrs. Sherman will take good care of 
you. 

"Very sincerely yours, 

"John Sherman." 

The foregoing letter contains a plain intimation that soon after 
the election Mr. Sherman had some specific question to discuss 
with Mr. Hanna relating to the latter's embarkation on an 
official public career. Early in December Mr. Hanna went to 
Washington, immediately after a visit of several days with the 
President-elect, and while there he dined with Senator Sherman. 
As soon as he returned West he had another long conference with 
Mr. McKinley. We can only surmise what happened at these 
interviews, but one of Mr. Sherman's friends throws some 
light upon Mr. Sherman's own attitude both towards his trans- 
feral to the State Department and the consequences of such a 
transferal. Captain J. C. Donaldson was Mr. Sherman's 
closest political aide. He had repeatedly rendered loyal service 
to Mr. Sherman during the latter's Senatorial campaigns. The 
position he occupied for many years as Secretary of the Ohio 
State Committee with particular charge of the election of candi- 
dates to the Legislature made his services during a Senatorial 
canvass particularly valuable. His helpful participation in the 
close fight for Mr. Sherman's reelection in 1892 has been 



SENATOR BY APPOINTMENT 235 

described in a preceding chapter. According to a letter written 
by Captain Donaldson to Mr. James B. Morrow, the following 
is the actual sequence of events leading to Mr. Sherman's 
resignation. 

" In 1897, Mr. Sherman expressed to me his desire to return to 
the Senate, should the Republicans of the state desire it, and 
asked me to assist him in ascertaining the drift of sentiment. A 
few of us sought to organize a committee in his behalf to act 
centrally at Columbus. Before this was accomplished General 
Dick, then Secretary of the National Committee, requested me 
to go to Cleveland, to assist in the work of the National Com- 
mittee. It was then agreed by Mr. Sherman's friends in Colum- 
bus that each of us should pursue the work individually until 
the committee should be organized, and that I should pursue 
the work from Cleveland. Immediately on my arrival in 
Cleveland, I informed both Mr. Hanna and General Dick what I 
intended doing, and they both cordially assented and agreed to 
facilitate and did facilitate my work. I wrote a series of letters 
to friends in every county in the state and sent the replies with- 
out comment to Senator Sherman, so that he might be informed 
at first hand of the real situation in the state. Just at that time 
a Cabinet appointment began to be discussed, and very many of 
his tried and true friends urged him to round out his career in 
the Cabinet. I was doubtful about the wisdom of his abandon- 
ing the race for the Senate, but I never ventured a suggestion 
further than to assure him that I thought he could be reelected. 
I could see by Mr. Sherman's letters that he was not averse to 
a Cabinet appointment, and finally on invitation of President 
McKinley did accept the Premiership without any pressure on 
Mr. Hanna's part." 

The two letters from Senator Sherman to Captain Donaldson 
read as follows : — 

"Jan. 10, 1897. 
"Capt J. C. Donaldson, 
"My dear Sir: — 

" Your interesting letter of the 7th inst. is received and read 
with attention. I am very glad to read your favorable report 
of the condition of opinion in Ohio. Still I feel a sense of duty 



236 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

to McKinley and am strongly inclined to accept his offer. The 
chief impediment in tlie way is the fear that Governor Bushnell 
will not appoint Hanna to fill my unexpired term. It seems to 
me that I ought to be allowed to designate my successor without 
at all affecting the question of who should be elected Senator 
for the term commencing March 4, 1899. I will keep you 
informed of any change of condition if any should occur. 

" Very truly yours, 

"John Sherman." 

" Feb. 3, 1897. 
"Capt. J. Donaldson, 
" My dear Sir : — 

" Your letter of the 1st with inclosures is received and has 
been read with attention. It would seem as if Governor Bushnell 
is doing all he can to make it difficult to reelect him. He ought 
at once to settle the question of my successor, and any other 
selection than Hanna would be a great mistake. I will be glad 
any time to get clippings, indicating the political feeling in Ohio. 

" Very truly yours, 

"John Sherman." 

The overture made by Senator Sherman to Captain Donaldson 
in respect to a canvass for his reelection was itself probably 
prompted by a desire on the part of the Senator to find out 
whether, in case he refused a Cabinet office, he could keep his 
seat in the Senate. He had received a written tender of the 
Secretaryship of State about January 1, and had already practi- 
cally decided to accept it. On January 15 he went to Canton 
and made his acceptance definite. He had many good reasons 
for being very glad of the chance to end his public career as the 
Premier of a Cabinet. He had been elected in 1892 only by a 
narrow margin and after a hard and costly fight. He could be 
reelected only after another similar fight, and he had no longer 
the strength either to go on the stump or to manage the 
details of such a campaign. A position at the head of the; 
Cabinet looked by comparison like a dignified and grateful 
refuge. He was glad to accept it, and he was glad that his vacant t 
place might be filled by Mr. Hanna. If his retirement from the 
Senate was the result of a conspiracy, whereby he was kicked 1 



SENATOR BY APPOINTMENT 237 

upstairs for Mr. Hanna's benefit, the victim himself was one of 
the chief conspirators. 

The other charge — that the President-elect appointed an 
unfit man as his Secretary of State for the purpose of indirectly 
benefiting Mr. Hanna — is more serious. It has been stated 
in the following words by Rear Admiral F. E. Chadwick in his 
history of the "Relations of the United States and Spain." He 
charges (p. 490, Vol. 1) that *'Mr. Sherman's infirm health, 
soon to become painfully evident, combined with his advanced 
age, now seventy-four years, made the appointment one to be 
justly criticised. Mr. Sherman's appointment, even had he 
been in vigorous health, and equal to the heavy duties of his 
office, was, in the critical condition of affairs, on account of his 
previous pronounced antagonistic views to Spanish procedure, a 
blow to peace. . . . That the appointment was a concession to 
certain political adjustments in his state of a decidedly personal 
nature, did not add to its political morality." The accusation is, 
consequently, that Mr. McKinley deliberately appointed as his 
Secretary of State a man, who was disqualified for the office both 
by his record and by physical infirmities, so as to supply Mr. 
Hanna with a seat in the Senate. 

That the appointment of Mr. Sherman was a mistake, there 
is, of course, no doubt ; but the reasons which made it a serious 
mistake are more obvious long after the event than they were at 
the time. The appointment commended itself to Mr. McKinley 
as one that from many points of view was extremely desirable. 
Mr. Sherman was, in 1897, if not the most eminent living Amer- 
ican statesman, at least the statesman with the longest record of 
useful public service. His name carried more weight than that 
of any other political leader. He had served in the Senate, not 
onlyas chairman of the Committee on Finance, but also as chair- 
man of the Committee on Foreign Relations. Mr. McKinley 
may well have been ignorant of the fact that Mr. Sherman had 
fulminated vigorously and ignorantly in the Senate about 
Spanish dominion in Cuba. He had every intention of pre- 
serving peace with Spain, and he would not, under any circum- 
stances, have appointed a man Secretary of State who in his 
opinion would have made the preservation of peace more diffi- 
cult. He may well have thought that he was calling to his 



238 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

assistance the one American statesman whose experience in 
relation to the foreign affairs of the country would make his 
services peculiarly valuable. 

A political associate of Mr. McKinley's, whom the Presi- 
dent-elect frequently consulted about the effect on public opinion 
of appointing different men to his Cabinet, clearly recollects a con- 
versation with Mr. McKinley in respect to Senator Sherman's des- 
ignation as Secretary of State. The consideration which seemed 
to be uppermost in Mr. McKinley's mind was the prestige 
which he hoped would accrue to the administration by the be- 
stowal of the premier position in his Cabinet on Mr. Sher- 
man. He had been elected on an issue involving the financial 
integrity of the country and the prosperity of general business. 
He wished above all to gain for the administration the confi- 
dence of the business interests, and in his opinion Senator 
Sherman's appointment would contribute effectually to that 
result. He recognized that Mr. Sherman was failing in health 
and mental vigor, but he argued that inasmuch as the country 
knew nothing about it, Mr. Sherman's name would lose none 
of its value to the administration. He expected to be able by 
giving Mr. Sherman a competent first assistant Secretary to 
obtain the benefit of the Senator's prestige and general advice, 
while at the same time keeping the departmental detail in ca- 
pable hands. 

Such arguments may well have carried much weight with 
Mr. McKinley. He had never been much interested in the 
foreign affairs of the United States, and he probably failed to 
understand the gravity of the approaching crisis. He did not 
anticipate that within a year the country would be on the verge 
of war, and he had every intention of preserving peace. His 
attention being concentrated on the domestic situation, he nat- 
urally made his appointments with the object chiefly in mind J 
of meeting the exigencies of the country's political and busi- 
ness condition. He made, consequently, grave mistakes in ap- 
pointing his Secretaries both of Foreign Affairs and of War, 
but the mistakes were natural, if not excusable. He would 
have been the last man in the world to have compromised the 
success of his administration by naming weak men to the heads 
of those departments — in case he had realized his subsequent 



SENATOR BY APPOINTMENT 239 

need of unusually capable assistants as Secretaries of Foreign 
Affairs and of War. 

Whether or not the arguments in favor of Mr. Sherman's 
transfer to the State Department would have prevailed, in case 
Mr. McKinley had not needed Mr. Hanna's assistance in the 
Senate and in case Mr. Hanna had not wanted a seat in that 
body, may well be doubted. But admitting that a Senatorship 
for Mr. Hanna constituted an important advantage of the 
arrangement, there was nothing reprehensible about such a 
redistribution of ofl&cial positions among Mr. McKinley's sup- 
porters and friends. The mistake consisted, not in the ar- 
rangement itself, but in failing to understand the paramount 
importance at that particular juncture of the ablest possible 
direction of State Department. Furthermore, in estimating the 
probable influence of Mr. Hanna's desire for a seat in the Senate 
upon the tender of the Secretaryship of State to Mr. Sherman, 
it must be remembered that the President was running a grave 
risk of transferring Mr. Sherman to the State Department, while 
at the same time making room for an opponent rather than his 
most efficient friend in the Senate. As Mr. Sherman's letters 
indicate, they had no assurance that the new Secretary's place 
could and would be filled by Mark Hanna. 

The Governor of Ohio at that time was Asa Bushnell. He had 
been nominated by the State Convention of 1895, which was 
controlled by the opposing faction in state politics. He was 
far from friendly either to the President-elect or to Mr. Hanna. 
He would have liked to interfere with their plans. As a mat- 
ter of fact, he hesitated a long time before making the appoint- 
ment, keeping Mr. Hanna in the meantime in an agony of 
suspense. Not until February 21, two weeks before Mr. McKin- 
ley's inauguration, and five weeks after the announcement of 
Senator Sherman's appointment, did he write to Mr. Hanna 
announcing the latter's appointment as Senator, until the Legis- 
lature should have an opportunity to act. 

"Columbus, February 21, 1897. 
" My dear Mr. Hanna : — 

" When Senator Sherman announced his intention of ac- 
cepting the portfolio of the State Department in the Cabinet of 



240 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

President McKinley, I deemed it best not to make an an- 
nouncement as to my action in the matter of appointing his 
successor, until the vacancy actually existed. However, the 
interest of the people and their anxiety to know what will be 
done has become so evident that it now seems proper to make 
the definite statement of my intentions. I therefore wish to 
communicate to you my conclusion to appoint you as the 
successor of Senator Sherman, when his resignation shall have 
been received. This information I have understood will have 
been in accordance with your desire, it having been stated to 
me that you wish to make certain arrangements in your 
private affairs. 

" I wish you all success in your office and many years of health 
and happiness. I am 

" Very sincerely yours, 

"AsaT. BUSHNELL." 

The reasons stated by the Governor for his delay were disin- 
genuous. He considered seriously the possibility of a number of 
alternative appointments. It is stated on good authority that 
he sounded several prominent Republicans in the effort to secure 
a man for the office, whose public services constituted a title to 
the distinction. But in the end he did not dare. Mr. Hanna's 
friends, including as they now did practically all the influential 
business men in the state and the majority of the important 
political leaders, exerted an irresistible pressure upon him. He 
was a candidate for a second term as Governor, and he was 
presumably given to understand that in case he refused Mr. 
Hanna the appointment, he would have no chance of renomina- 
tion. Nevertheless, strong as his cards were, Mr. Hanna 
doubted up to the last moment whether he would get his Sena- 
torship. Even after the announcement was published, the issue 
of the commission was delayed. Governor Bushnell did not 
actually place it into Mr. Hanna's hands until the morning 
after McKinley's inauguration, March 5, 1897. The delivery 
was made in person in the parlor of the Arlington Hotel, only 
a few persons being present. The commission was handed over 
with a great deal of formality, and, according to an eyewitness, 
with a total lack of cordiality on the part of the donor and of 



I SENATOR BY APPOINTMENT 241 

the recipient. The new Senator left immediately for the Capi- 
tol in order to be sworn in. Various reasons have been sug- 
gested for the Governor's delay in issuing the commission, of 
which, perhaps, the most plausible is that Mr. Hanna's colleague 
wished to be technically the senior Senator from Ohio. 

Thus the beginning of Mr. Hanna's official career was practi- 
cally coincident with the beginning of Mr. McKinley's presi- 
dential term. Mr. Hanna had obtained the particular status 
which he had coveted for so long, and which was the one ofl&ce 
which offered to him a larger opportunity than ever for the 
exercise of his abilities as a partisan executive, as an organizer 
of public opinion and as a personal political force. The 
remainder of" this book will be filled with the story of the way 
in which he embraced these larger opportunities and the way 
in which he fulfilled the responsibilities imposed upon him by 
his peculiar endowment of oJEcial, extra-official and personal 
power. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

SENATOR BY ELECTION 

Before beginning an account of Mr. Hanna's official career, it 
will be convenient to anticipate the actual sequence of events 
and tell the story of his first election to the Senate. That 
election did not take place until over a year after his appoint- 
ment, but inasmuch as the extraordinary incidents surrounding 
it were the culmination of his early extra-official career in 
Ohio politics, they can best be related in the present sequence. 

When Mr. Hanna was appointed Senator, he had made no 
definite decision to seek election as his own successor ; but after 
he had once occupied a senatorial seat his political future and 
prestige came to depend more than ever upon his presence in 
the Senate. To have occupied such a position by virtue of 
the Governor's selection and then to have shirked a submission 
of his title to the people and the Legislature of his state, would 
have been an act of weakness and cowardice, of which he was 
incapable and which would have reacted injuriously upon his 
personal prestige. Once having been named Senator, he was 
compelled to seek the confirmation of an election; and once 
having announced his candidacy his success became a matter of 
keen personal feeling. For the first time in his life he threw 
himself ardently into a campaign whose object was the fulfil- 
ment of a specific personal ambition. 

His candidacy, which was announced in the most public 
manner, met in the beginning with practically no open hostility 
within his own party. The opposing faction had been tem- 
porarily silenced by the popularity and prestige which Mr. 
Hanna had obtained as a result of the successful presidential 
campaign. The State Convention assembled in Toledo on 
June 23, 1897. Mr. Hanna was in complete control. The 
Convention of 1895 had established a precedent in Ohio politics 
by nominating James B. Foraker for Senator. The Convention 

242 



SENATOR BY ELECTION 243 

of 1897 followed the precedent and submitted Mr. Hanna's 
name to the voters of Ohio as the Republican candidate both 
for Mr. Sherman's unexpired term and for the new term be- 
ginning March 4, 1899. No objection was made to this action. 
On the contrary, the utmost harmony and enthusiasm prevailed. 
The opposing faction was placated by the renomination of Asa 
Bushnell for Governor; but Charles L. Kurtz was retired as 
chairman of the State Committee and one of Mr. Hanna's 
friends, Mr, George K. Nash, was substituted for him. Mr. 
Kurtz resented his enforced retirement, and for this and other 
reasons cherished a lively personal animosity against Mr. Hanna 
which was later to bear fruit. 

Mark Hanna, unlike so many other business men, did not 
attempt to enter the Senate by the back door. His candidacy 
was submitted to the voters of Ohio just as decisively as if the 
"Oregon System" of direct partisan primaries had prevailed in 
that state. He was, of course, nominated without a state-wide 
primary, but every voter in Ohio, in casting his ballot for a mem- 
ber of the General Assembly, knew or thought he knew or ought 
to have known whether he was voting for or against Mr. Hanna. 
The campaign was managed with his customary thorough 
attention to detail. The issue was deliberately and explicitly 
raised all over the state. The County Conventions which 
succeeded or followed the State Convention indorsed his candi- 
dacy. In this way the Republicans in eighty-four out of the 
eighty-eight counties testified to their approval pf his election. 
The Republican nominees for the Legislature were obliged 
to declare publicly whether they would or would not vote for 
him. His candidacy dominated the campaign and either over- 
awed or included all other issues. 

The situation compelled Mr. Hanna to go upon the stump and 
meet the voters of his native state face to face. He was obliged 
to risk practically his whole political future upon the impression 
which his person and his words would make upon the electorate, 
and he was obliged to risk this attempt without any previous 
training or experience in public speaking. His skill as a political 
manager might help to decide the result. His great personal 
influence with the leading members of his party might rally to 
his aid the most effective available assistance. Nevertheless he 



244 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

stood before the public practically alone and in a new role. 
Heretofore he had organized the expression of public opinion 
and exerted his influence upon it indirectly through other men. 
In his new role he must try to shape it directly by the weight 
of his own words and by the contagious force of his o^vn con- 
victions. He must conquer popular confidence in himself as 
a man and as a political leader, or else he must be content to 
become a sort of glorified senatorial "boss" and stage manager, 
who, no matter how powerful and useful he were behind the 
scenes, never dared to make a public appearance except as a 
lay-figure or as a prompter. 

The development that ensued constituted, perhaps, the most 
striking single incident in a career full of dramatic surprises. 
Nothing in Mr. Hanna's previous career had made his friends 
anticipate that he would make a success or obtain any influence 
as a public speaker. Mr. James H. Dempsey, indeed, states 
that many years before he had been surprised at the vigorous, 
concise and logical argument which Mr. Hanna had made 
before the old Board of Improvements in Cleveland on behalf of 
certain requests which had been submitted to the Board by 
the street railway company ; but Mr. Hanna's experience of 
even this class of speaking had been slight. Such arguments 
were almost always turned over to counsel. Until the fall of 
1897 his appearances as a public speaker had been limited to 
the few words he had said in response to the ovation tendered to 
him at the St. Louis Convention, to the little addresses which 
he had made to his neighbors and friends after his return from 
St. Louis, and to one speech of less than ten minutes delivered 
in Chicago during the campaign of 1896. How, then, was a 
man in his sixtieth year to break through the habits of a life- 
time and learn the new trick of talking fluently and convincingly 
in public? It would not be easy to read or to memorize a 
carefully prepared speech, but on the stump speeches cannot 
or should not be prepared. Success on the stump depends far 
more on a man's ability to adapt himself sympathetically to a 
particular audience or situation than it does upon careful 
preparation or even upon his general ability and eloquence as a 
partisan orator. 

It was really fortunate for Mr. Hanna that such was the case. 



SENATOR BY ELECTION 245 

The lack of preparation characteristic of good stump speaking 
was the aspect of it which enabled him to make a success. He 
was a man who could think out a plan of campaign but not the 
ramifications of an idea or the best way of expressing it. Mrs. 
Hanna contributes an account of her husband's one attempt to 
prepare himself for his new job. It was President McKinley who 
first urged upon him the absolute necessity of his appearance on 
the platform during the fall campaign of 1897. "If I go on the 
stump," Mr. Hanna replied, "I'll never be elected. I can't 
stand up before a crowd and talk." Mr. McKinley encouraged 
him, advised him to think the matter over, lock himself in 
his library and write at least one speech, which could be changed 
from time to time to meet the special needs of particular crowds. 
"When you have written it," said Mr. McKinley, "fetch it to 
me, and I will look it over." The next Sunday Mr. Hanna du- 
tifully disappeared into his library after supper and sat up until 
midnight, wrestling with the composition of his speech. As 
he finished the sheets, he put them into a drawer of his desk, 
and the next morning after breakfast he took them out and read 
them. Mrs. Hanna says that she will never forget the look of 
utter disgust that possessed his face during the reading. At 
the end he tore the sheets to pieces and threw them into 
the waste paper basket. " That, " he said, pointing to the waste 
paper basket, "is the weakest and most sickening stuff I have 
ever read." Mark Hanna had to do things in his own way. 
He could not make or write a speech a la McKinley. 

Thereafter he never prepared a speech or the outline of a 
speech. When on the stump he never carried with him notes, 
references, books or information and memoranda of any kind. 
So far as his intimate friends could judge he never even needed 
to turn over in his own mind the substance of what he proposed 
to say. His private secretary, Mr. Elmer Dover, states that 
he did not know definitely what he would talk about until he 
got upon his feet. Yet he was always ready for the three or 
four speeches that might comprise the day's work, and each of 
them would have its own special propriety and point. The 
only part of these speeches of which he needed some conscious 
preliminary control was the very beginning. He usually 
planned the first sentence or two. The rest of it followed of its 



246 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

own momentum, just as a conversation may take its own course 
after a subject has once been introduced. When he was in 
good form, he was able to talk on in this way for an hour or more, 
without pausing for an idea or scarcely for a word. 

Naturally he did not acquire such facility immediately or 
without an introductory period of distress. In the beginning 
it required on his part a great effort to face an audience. Mrs. 
•Hanna says that on the occasion of his first few political speeches 
he turned pale with discomforture. In one case his obvious 
distress was such that she feared he would faint. For a long 
time he lacked self-confidence on the platform and dreaded 
when the moment for his appearance arrived. During his first 
stumping tour in the fall of 1897 he began with little speeches 
which required not more than fifteen minutes to deliver. By 
the end of the campaign he could run on for half an hour 
without effort or loss of energy. The time came when he began 
to enjoy it and take pride in his success. After a long period 
of confinement in his office nothing amused or rested him so 
much as a week on the stump. It was exhilarating without 
being fatiguing. It benefited him in much the same way that 
a vacation accompanied by hard outdoor exercise benefited 
other men. It stirred him up mind and body, and he returned 
home refreshed and happy. 

Eventually he came to be a very effective public speaker. 
His success was caused chiefly by the sympathetic understand- 
ing which he had the power of establishing between himself 
and his audience. He impressed them immediately as a large- 
hearted, genial and sincere man, wholly without pretence and 
humbug. They felt the attraction and the force of his person- 
ality. He talked to them as he might talk to a group of friends, 
with simple words, in a confidential manner and on occasions 
with bursts of explosive feeling. He did not need to prepare 
these speeches, because they consisted, not of ideas which he had 
derived from others, but of a few deep convictions based ex-- 
clusively on his own life or the lives of his own people. Every- 
thing that he had to say was on the top of his mind. His public 
speaking was an artless revelation of his own personality and his 
own experience, which accounts for the ease with which hec 
took it up and its popular success. His audiences were for thee 



SENATOR BY ELECTION 247 

most part captivated by the man, and they were easily convinced 
by a group of ideas, based upon so familiar and typical an ex- 
perience. 

Begiiming merely as a stump speaker, he finally found it as 
easy to talk in public about other than political topics. Several 
of his most successful speeches had nothing to do with politics ; 
but whatever the subject, the substance and the method were 
always the same. In June, 1903, he had, for instance, been 
asked to make the principal address at the seventy-fifth anni- 
versary of the foundation of Kenyon College, and he had 
consented to do so. His promise had, however, escaped his 
memory, and he went to Gambler on the appointed day merely, 
as he thought, in the capacity of guest. When he saw his 
name on the program, he was very much embarrassed; but 
he rose to the occasion. His speech, which was as usual com- 
posed in the face of his audience and under the stimulus of its 
presence, has been described by those who heard it, for the 
most part educated and trained men, as adequate and excel- 
lent of its kind. 

Speeches such as those of Mr. Hanna do not read as well as 
they sound. They had a colloquial rather than a rhetorical 
value. They were deficient in structure, in sequence and even 
in the thorough expression of a single idea. They rambled 
about from one subject to another, with frequent retracing of 
paths already trod, and with abrupt chasms between one part of 
the journey and the next. Particularly in the beginning, the 
wording was sometimes clumsy, and the meaning of particular 
sentences obscure. The second half of a long sentence would 
sometimes lose any sense of filial responsibility towards the first 
half. But with practice Mr. Hanna gradually overcame the 
most obvious of these faults. He could never make a coherent 
speech culminating in a climax. When his feelings were very 
much aroused, his expression of them was forcible and explosive 
rather than intense and dignified. He was not, that is, an 
[ orator any more than he was a statesman ; but his style of 
■ speaking suited his own audiences and message better than 
' would any outbursts of sustained and impassioned eloquence. 
His own personality supplied the wire which tied all his para- 
graphs and sentences together, and which gave consistency if 



248 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

not coherence to his discourse, and force if not hght to his ex- 
plosions. 

During the fall of 1897 Mr. Hanna spoke almost every day 
from September 21 until November 1. His tour covered a 
large part of the state and included the small towns as well as the 
cities. The late Senator Frye, who shared many of the plat- 
forms with him, testified that day by day Mr. Hanna gained in 
self-confidence and in his mastery of his hearers. The meetings 
were unusually large ; but during the first tour the audiences were 
not particularly enthusiastic. They seemed to be prompted 
more by curiosity than a cordial and sympathetic interest. 
Two years later when Mr. Frye and Mr. Hanna covered sub- 
stantially the same territory on another tour their audiences 
were, according to Mr. Frye, both larger and far more enthusias- 
tic than they had been in 1897. 

The voters of Ohio had much more reason in the fall of 
1897 to be curious about Mr. Hanna than to have confidence 
in him. He was one of the best advertised men in the country, 
but the people did not know him. While they had read a great 
deal about him in the newspapers, their reading probably 
misrepresented him and predisposed them against him. He 
had been portrayed by his opponents as a monster of sordid 
greed, and as the embodiment of all that was worst in American 
politics and business. The ordinary man had no convincing 
reason for entirely rejecting these charges. Even though he 
discounted them heavily, he might well be prejudiced against j 
their victim. But in any event he would be curious to see 
the person who was said to have made a President, and who was 
said to have done these and other things with such evil intentions 
and by virtue of such dubious methods. He would be all the 
more curious because Mr. Hanna had become the issue of the 
campaign. The candidate was being bitterly assailed l)y the 
Democrats. All the regular accusations were being revived I 
and being spouted from every Democratic platform. Mr. , 
William J. Bryan was pressed into service, and the campaign i 
of the preceding year was fought over again — but with this 
difference: the new campaign became essentially personal. 
The attacks were concentrated on the man who had acted as* 
general during the previous year; and the hope of the Demo-i 



SENATOR BY ELECTION 249 

crats was that by the defeat of Mr. Hanna they could claun a 
reversal of the earlier verdict, weaken the administration and 
exclude their conqueror from public life. 

I shall not quote from the speeches in which Mr. Hanna very 
vigorously defended himself and in his turn attacked his oppo- 
nents. The course of political controversy during the next few 
years enabled Mr. Hanna at a later date to express very much 
more definitely the group of economic ideas which he believed 
would contribute most effectually to the welfare of the American 
people. The substance of his characteristic policy was, indeed, 
plainly foreshadowed in these earlier speeches. He was already 
declaring that the dominant purpose of the government's economic 
legislation should be the stimulation of business activity, and 
that as a result of such stimulation prosperity would be fairly and 
evenly distributed throughout the whole of the economic body. 
He was already claiming that the Dingley Law, which had recently 
been enacted, had actually begun the work of rescuing business 
from the depression which had prevailed since 1893. But the 
prosperity actually created in the fall of 1897 was neither suffi- 
ciently emphatic nor sufficiently prevalent to permit the com- 
plete and confident development of the foregoing argument. 
And we may postpone a completer presentation of it until Mr. 
Hanna could claim with more plausibility and conviction that 
the national economic policy of the Republican party had 
actually restored the American people to a condition of com- 
parative comfort and hope. For the rest the general issues 
involved by Mr. Hanna's personal campaign were an echo of 
the discussion of the preceding fall. Mr. Bryan's participation 
in the discussion and the renewal of his pro-silver proselytizing 
were sufficient to effect this result. 

In replying to the personal attacks upon himself Mr. Hanna 
always spoke with moderation and good judgment. He knew 
that the best possible answer to the grotesque misrepresenta- 
tion of which he had been the victim was merely to show him- 
self on the platform and to give his audiences the sense of his 
personality. So he usually began by saying that no doubt many 
of his hearers had come to see whether or not he had a pair of 
horns actually growing upon his head. Specific charges lie 
would deny with a rough indignation that always made an 



250 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

impression upon his audience. The charge against him of which 
he most feared the effect, but which was most easy to re- 
fute, was that in his own business life he had sweated his 
employees and opposed their organization. Whenever he spoke 
in a town in which his own firm possessed interests, he chal- 
lenged his opponents or his hearers to bring forward a single 
case in which any one or any group of his employees had been 
ill-treated by his firm. He could always show that he had paid 
the highest prevailing wages, and that his laborers were neither 
crushed nor had any sense of being crushed. And he could 
show, furthermore, that so far from being hostile to labor 
organization, he had been unusually friendly to those unions 
with which his business had brought him into contact. The 
record of his personal relations to his employees was in every 
respect thoroughlj'^ good, and his opponents in attacking him 
on that score were trying to storm his intrenchments at their 
strongest possible point. This phase of the campaign was a 
source of great benefit to Mr. Hanna. When the canvass was 
over, his associates, who had been watching closely the effect of 
his public appearance upon popular opinion, felt sure that he had 
won out. 

The event justified their anticipations. On the day after the 
election Mr. Hanna's victory appeared certain. The Republi- 
cans were conceded a majority of fifteen on the joint ballot, 
which seemed to provide a margin large enough for all probable 
contingencies. Only a very few of the Senators and Assembly- 
men elected had not been specifically pledged to Mr. Hanna. 
The name of no other Republican candidate had even been men- 
tioned. It looked like plain sailing. Yet the results were no 
sooner announced than Mr. Hanna and his friends began to 
anticipate trouble. On the morning of the election day the 
Cleveland Leader sounded a warning against treachery and 
asserted that ballots were being circulated, indicating the method 
whereby a voter might defeat Mr. Hanna and elect the rest of 
the Republican ticket. It was remarked after the returns 
came in that, whereas Governor Bushnell had a plurality of 
about 28,000, the total plurality of the Republican legislative 
candidates was less than one-third of that figure. A day or two 
later Mr. Allen O. Myers, a prominent Democratic machine 



SENATOR BY ELECTION 251 

politician, asserted confidently in an interview that Mr. Hanna 
could not hold together the Republican majority in the Legisla- 
ture. He frankly confessed that the Democrats had planned 
to sacrifice their candidate for Governor to the capture of the 
Legislature. 

Mr. Hanna's friends have always believed that his enemies, 
even before the election, deliberately conspired to defeat him 
by underhand means. They had submitted to his appoint- 
ment as Senator because they felt sure that in the year of 
reaction which would probably follow upon a great Republican 
victory he could not be elected. When they found as a conse- 
quence of his appearance on the stump that he was becoming 
personally popular instead, as they had expected, unpopular, 
they tried to defeat him (so it was charged) by trading votes for 
the Governor against votes for legislative candidates. Of course 
these charges were never proved, but they were made plausible 
both by the election returns and by the alliance between the 
Democrats and the Republican malcontents, which was publicly 
announced after the election. 

Among the Republicans the leaders in this conspiracy were 
Governor Asa T. Bushnell, Charles L. Kurtz, and Robert 
E. McKisson, Mayor of Cleveland. What Mr. Bushnell's 
grievance was, I do not know. He was a well-to-do manufac- 
turer and a man of many excellent qualities. He had always 
been associated with the faction in Ohio politics inimical to Mr. 
Hanna; but that fact should not have been sufficient to justify 
an honorable man in assisting so dubious a conspiracy. He 
may have resented the pressure which had forced him to ap- 
point Mr. Hanna as Senator and have resolved that his ap- 
pointee should be succeeded by another man. But during the 
canvass he had spoken from the same platform as Mr. Hanna 
and had both tacitly and explicitly approved him as the regular 
Republican candidate for Senator. Nevertheless the day after 
the election he announced that a Republican would be elected 
Senator, but carefully eschewed the mention of Mr. Hanna's 
name — indicating that his line of action had already been 
chosen. Later he appointed to the position of Oil Inspector 
Charles L. Kurtz, who was the leader of the Republican mal- 
contents. Mr. Kurtz had a personal grievance against Mr. 



252 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

Harina, which is said to have been based on a misunder- 
standing. 

Neither the Governor nor Mr. Kurtz, however, could have 
done anything to endanger Mr. Hanna's election, had they not 
been aided by the local political situation in the two largest 
cities in the state. The Mayor of Cleveland at that timg was 
Robert E. McKisson. His first election had taken place in the 
spring of 1895, and was the result of one of those independent 
movements within the local organization which so frequently 
disconcerted the plans of the regular Republican machine in 
Cleveland. McKisson had requested Mr. Hanna's support for 
his candidacy and had been sharply turned down, because in 
Mr. Hanna's opinion he had done nothing to entitle him to so 
responsible a position. He was nominated at the primary in 
spite of Mr. Hanna's opposition and had been elected. Judging 
from contemporary newspaper comments, he began by being a 
fairly good mayor, but later he sought to build up a personal 
machine at the expense of the city administration. He was re- 
elected in 1897, but in the meantime he had become very much 
disliked by the prominent business men of Cleveland. McKis- 
son on his side had always retained a lively personal animosity 
against Mr. Hanna — although his ill-feeling had not prevented 
him from speaking from the same platform as Mr. Hanna and 
recommending the latter's election. He himself had never been 
mentioned as a senatorial candidate. He was still very power- 
ful in Cuyahoga County and could control the votes of three 
Republican legislators. 

The situation in Cincinnati and Hamilton County was differ- 
ent but equally dangerous. A combination had taken place 
between the Democrats and the independent Republicans for 
the purpose of beating the local Republican machine, headed by 
"Boss" Cox. A joint legislative ticket had been nominated, 
and there had been elected some few legislative candidates who 
were really "Silver Republicans," and who were not pledged to 
support Mr. Hanna. The chief interest of these men was to 
secure the passage of certain legislation which would help them 
in their fight against the local machine ; but while not pledged to 
Mr. Hanna, they had not entered into any alliance with hia 
enemies. 



SENATOR BY ELECTION 253 

It soon became apparent that considering the probable 
strength of Mr. Hanna's opponents, he could not be elected 
without the support of certain of these independent Republicans 
from Hamilton County. Some weeks before the Legislature 
assembled, Mr. James R. Garfield, Senator from Lake County, 
went to Cincinnati at Mr. Hanna's request in order to interview 
these gentlemen and see what could be done. In that city the 
leaders in the Republican revolt against the machine were 
Edward O. Eshelby, publisher of the Commercial Tribune, and 
Judge Goebel. Through these gentlemen a meeting was ar- 
ranged with Senator Voight, who was the Republican member of 
the senatorial delegation from Hamilton County. Mr. Garfield 
is not sure whether an Assemblyman named Charles F. Droste, 
who was a "Silver Republican" by conviction, was present or 
not. The net result of this interview was neither entirely dis- 
couraging nor entirely reassuring. Senator Voight stated that 
while his personal feelings were favorable to Mr. Hanna he did 
not like the latter's alliance with Cox before the election. He 
made it plain that his first interest was to obtain the anti- 
machine legislation desired by the independent Republican 
movement, and he would give no definite assurances of coopera- 
tion. Nevertheless Mr. Garfield returned to Cleveland with 
the impression that Senator Voight would join the Hanna 
Republicans in organizing the Senate. He was not sure about 
Droste, the "Silver Republican"; and as to the other doubtful 
member of the delegation from Hamilton County, a druggist 
named John C. Otis, who had been outspoken against Mr. Hanna, 
he never had any expectation of securing the man's support. 

As the time for the meeting of the Legislature drew near, it 
became definitely known that two Assemblymen from Cuyahoga 
County, Mason and Bramley, would oppose Mr. Hanna. Both 
of these men had been pledged before the election to vote for 
him ; but in one way or another they were induced by Mayor 
McKisson to repudiate their pledges. The Senator from Cuya- 
hoga County, Vernon H. Burke, was non-committal, but it was 
feared that he also would violate a similar pledge. A week be- 
fore the date of meeting Mr. Hanna himself went to Columbus 
and opened headquarters at the Neil House. He had with him as 
assistants, not merely his personal supporters in and out of the 



254 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

Legislature, but prominent Republicans like George K. Nash, 
Charles Grosvenor and his counsel, Mr. Andrew Squire. Mr. 
Theodore E. Burton and many personal friends from Cleveland 
also went to Columbus to work in Mr. Hanna's interest. By 
this time they could count noses with some accuracy, and the 
result looked very dubious. Governor Bushnell was using the 
state patronage to beat Mr. Hanna, and a number of more or 
less prominent Republicans from different parts of the state 
joined the cabal. Senator Foraker did not come out openly 
against Mr. Hanna, but the fight was being carried on by his 
political associates. In the only interview with him published 
during the contest, he stated merely that he was doing his best 
to keep out of it. 

During the first few days the fight went against Mr. Hanna. 
Vernon H. Burke, the Senator from Cuyahoga County, absented 
himself on the day the Senate assembled (the first Monday in 
January) and that body was consequently organized by the 
Democrats. The vote stood seventeen to eighteen. When Mr. 
Burke finally appeared he voted with the Democrats, thus in- 
creasing their strength to nineteen against seventeen for Mr. 
Hanna. Senator Voight of Hamilton voted with the Republi- 
cans, having reached an understanding with Mr. Garfield and 
the regular Republican Senators that the latter would support 
any antimachine legislation for Hamilton County, which 
sought to restore popular political control in that district. 

In the House, also, Mr. Hanna fared ill. Ten Assemblymen 
did not appear at the preliminary Republican caucus. The 
absentees included, besides Messrs. Bramley and Mason, J. C. 
Otis of Hamilton, D. O. Rutan of Harrison, William A. Scott of 
Fulton and John P. Jones of Stark. These six men, together 
with Burke, were the Republicans who voted against Mr. Hanna 
on the official ballot. All of them, except Otis and Rutan, had 
been pledged to Mr. Hanna. Of the other four absentees one 
was sick. Assemblyman Charles F. Droste attended the caucus. 
Thus the "bipartisan" combination succeeded also in organiz- 
ing the Assembly. Nine Republicans voted with the forty- 
seven Democrats and elected as Speaker, Mason, the anti- 
Hanna convert from Cuyahoga County. If a vote had been 
taken on that day, the allies could apparently have mustered on 



SENATOR BY ELECTION 255 

joint ballot seventy-five anti-Hanna legislators, two more than 
constituted the majority necessary for election. 

But the allies were not ready for a vote. On Wednesday the 
Legislature adjourned until the following Tuesday. This ad- 
journment proved fatal to the success of the conspiracy, but the 
allies were compelled to take it because they had not agreed 
upon a candidate. A preliminary understanding had been 
reached with the Democratic leaders that in order to beat Mr. 
Hanna, the Democrats were to vote for a Republican; but 
when the time came to select the particular Republican, it 
proved hard to force the Democratic rank and file into line. 
There were a few convinced Bryanites among them who would 
vote for none but a ''Silver Republican." Charles L. Kurtz 
was favorably mentioned in the beginning, but his name was 
soon dropped. There followed some talk of electing Mayor 
McKisson for the short term and Governor Bushnell for the 
long term. The Governor was willing, but not to the point of 
becoming a silver-lined Republican. John R. McLean was the 
accepted Democratic candidate for Senator, and the course of 
giving him a complimentary vote before switching to a Republi- 
can was considered for a while. Finally, however, even this 
formal tribute to partisan consistency was abandoned. At the 
last moment the coalition found Mayor McKisson to be the 
most available candidate for both the long and the short term. 
The Democratic caucus was stormy, but its scruples were as- 
suaged by the appearance of the statesmanlike candidate, who 
explained that while "before the people" he was a Republican, 
he would nevertheless stand as Senator upon the Chicago plat- 
form. That is, although always a Republican, and although he 
had spoken from the same platform as Mr. Hanna during the 
campaign, he was just as much of a Democrat as was necessary 
to get elected. To their credit, be it said, there were three 
Democratic legislators who later refused to cast their ballots for 
this convert to Democracy. 

It was not, however, until Monday, January 10, that Mayor 
McKisson had been selected as the anti-Hanna candidate. 
During the five intervening days Columbus had been the scene 
of probably the most embittered and desperate fight ever devel- 
oped by American party politics. The action of the Republi- 



256 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

can malcontents in combining with the Democrats to defeat 
Mr. Hanna had taken the state by surprise. His election had 
been considered secure. An extraordinary outburst of popular 
indignation followed. The whole state was in an uproar. 
Mass meetings were held in the great majority of towns and 
cities all over Ohio to denounce the traitors and their treachery. 
The meeting in Cleveland was attended by eight thousand people. 
Vigorous measures were taken to make these protests felt in 
Columbus. Delegations were sent to the capital from many 
parts of the state and particularly from those counties whose 
representatives were members of the conspiracy. The delega- 
tion from Cleveland included one hundred of the most conspicu- 
ous business men in the city. 

Columbus came to resemble a mediaeval city given over to 
an angry feud between armed partisans. Everybody was 
worked up to a high pitch of excitement and resentment. Blows 
were exchanged in the hotels and on the streets. There were 
threats of assassination. Timid men feared to go out after 
dark. Certain members of the Legislature were supplied with 
body-guards. Many of them never left their rooms. Detec- 
tives and spies, who were trying to track down various stories 
of bribery and corruption, were scattered everywhere. Much of 
the indignation was concentrated on the Governor. His in- 
auguration was the ghost of a ceremony. The reception was 
over in twenty minutes, and out of the two hundred and fifty 
invitations sent to prominent people in Columbus to be present, 
only twenty-five were accepted. A delegation of the Govern- 
or's own fellow-townsmen and neighbors went to see him in 
a body and asked him to explain his behavior. Finding that 
he could or would return no satisfactory answer to their com- 
plaints, they insulted him to his face. They threw his litho- 
graph portrait on the floor in front of him, and spat and wiped 
their feet upon it. 

The excitement was caused, not merely by indignation and 
resentment, but by the fact that the decision one way or the 
other would depend on the votes of a very few men. Mr. Hanna 
required four additional votes, including that of Mr. Droste, who 
had entered the caucus, in order to be elected — assuming, of 
course, that he could keep all of his existing supporters. The 



SENATOR BY ELECTION 257 

most extraordinary efforts were made, consequently, to capture 
these doubtful men. For instance, among the Assemblymen 
who had stayed away from the Republican caucus was John E. 
Griffith of Union County. He had announced definitely soon 
after he reached Columbus that he would not vote for Mr. 
Hanna, Prior to the time of this declaration he had been living 
at the Neil House, the Hanna headquarters ; but on the day of 
the announcement he suddenly disappeared, and Mr. Harma's 
friends were unable to locate him. If they could get at him they 
thought they could do something with him, because his constitu- 
ents had been outraged at what they regarded as his treachery, 
and had been passing resolutions denouncing him and calling 
upon him to redeem his pledge. Finally it was discovered that 
the man had been drugged or intoxicated, and concealed in the 
rooms of the McKisson men at the Southern Hotel. At the 
same time they learned that Griffith was weakening and was 
scared by the denunciations which had been showered upon 
him. So one night a carriage was sent to the rear of the South- 
ern Hotel, and both Mr. Griffith and his wife were brought back 
rapidly and secretly to the Neil House. There they were kept 
under lock and key — not only for the remainder of the night, 
but until the day of the first ballot. It was feared that an at- 
tempt would be made to abduct them, and as a matter of fact 
certain partisans of McKisson did attempt to force their way 
to the room. 

The vote of Griffith would never have been recovered, had 
not the fellow-townsmen of the delinquent brought home to him 
the consequences of his behavior. The most powerful of all 
forces was working on Mr. Hanna's behalf — that of an outraged 
public sentiment. It strengthened incalculably the hands of 
Mr. Hanna's friends. The most desperate tactics were used to 
snatch one or two votes away from Mr. Hanna ; but his sup- 
porters held firm to the last man because, if for no other reason, 
they knew that if they deserted, they would be black-listed both 
by public opinion and by the Republican organization. Not 
only, however, were there no more converts made by the allies 
between the adjournment of the Legislature and the ballot, but 
the Hanna strength was constantly increasing. Of the ten Repre- 
sentatives who stayed out of the caucus of the lower House, the 
s 



258 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

one who was sick recovered in time to vote for Mr, Hanna. 
Anotiier was the John C. Griffith who had been drugged and 
almost kidnapped. Two others, Representatives Joyce of Cam- 
bridge and Manuel of Montgomery, announced before Saturday 
that they would return to the fold. There remained only the six 
Representatives and the one Senator who voted for McKisson 
on the first ballot and Mr. Charles F. Droste. 

In the meantime the friends of Mr. Hanna were busily circu- 
lating a paper, absolutely pledging its signers to vote for him. 
The great majority of the signatures were readily obtained ; but 
the pledges of the last two or three men, necessary to assure his 
election, came hard. A negro Representative from Cleveland, 
named Clifford, gave a great deal of trouble, and required con- 
stant solicitation and surveillance, although he finally signed 
and voted true to his signature. By one or two o'clock in the 
morning previous to the day of the ballot the pledges of seventy- 
two legislators had been secured, including that of Senator 
Voight of Hamilton County. Excluding the Representatives 
who had definitely announced that they would not vote for Mr. 
Hanna, the only other possible adherent was Mr. Droste. The 
election of Mr. Hanna on the first ballot depended on the ability 
of his friends to obtain Mr. Droste's consent on Tuesday 
morning. 

Mr. James R. Garfield had from the start attended to the 
negotiations with the delegation from Hamilton County; and 
he it was who finally induced Mr. Droste to sign. The latter 
is described as a man who was acting in obedience to his per- 
sonal convictions and pledges. He had never promised to sup- 
port Mr. Hanna. He had on the contrary pledged his support 
to Colonel Jeptha A. Gerrard, a lawyer of Cincinnati and a bi- 
metallist. It was hoped that Colonel Gerrard might, with Mr. 
Droste's vote, be elected, for he was a "Silver Republican" by 
conviction and had a title to consideration, in case the allies 
had been united on any basis of principle. He was offered the 
short term in return for his support of McKisson for the long 
term ; but Colonel Gerrard refused to consent to any such bargain. 
If he had consented, the combination might have gone through. 
On the other hand, the action of the Democratic caucus in select- 
ing McKisson for both the short and long terms, and the conse- 



SENATOR BY ELECTION 259 

quent hopelessness of Colonel Gerrard's candidacy, released Mr. 
Droste. He immediately promised to give his vote to Mr. Hanna, 
and his vote was the one which was needed in order to make up 
the required majority of seventy-three. 

On Tuesday, January 11, the two Houses balloted separately; 
Mr. Hanna received seventeen votes in the Senate and fifty-six 
in the Assembly. On that day the total number of McKisson 
supporters was only sixty-eight, — one Democrat being absent 
and three bolting the caucus nominee. But the anxiety was 
not over yet. It required a joint ballot to assure the result, and 
one deserter could upset everything. The seventy-three Hanna 
legislators went to the State House under the protection of Mr. 
Hanna's friends. Armed guards were stationed at every impor- 
tant point. The State House was full of desperate and deter- 
mined men. A system of signals was arranged and operated so 
that Mr. Hanna and his friends at the Neil House could be 
informed of the progress of the ballot. The seventy-three voted 
as they had voted the day before against seventy for McKisson. 
A white handkerchief waved violently by a man on the steps of 
the State House gave notice to Mr. Hanna, who was watching 
anxiously at a window, that he was elected. 

One aspect of this fierce contest remains to be considered. 
During the days of suspense charges of bribery were freely made 
on both sides. An election which turned on only a few doubt- 
ful votes and which aroused such violent passions was bound to 
create a cloud of mutual suspicions, and no serious or impartial 
attempt would be made to verify the reports. Men's attitude 
towards them would be determined by their sympathy with or 
their antipathy against Mr. Hanna. One of these charges, 
however, became public. On Sunday, January 9, the news- 
papers published a specific accusation that an agent of Mr. 
Hanna's had attempted to bribe Mr. J. C. Otis, the "Silver 
Republican" Representative from Cincinnati, and that an 
attorney named Thomas C. Campbell was a witness to the 
attempt. The charge, coming as it did at a critical moment of 
the struggle, produced the utmost consternation among Mr. 
Hanna's supporters. They feared for its effect on public opinion. 
The charge, however, was never taken very seriously by the 
public. Popular opinion had decided for Mr. Hanna, and the 



260 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

accusation was discounted as merely a desperate attempt to 
stem the tide of sentiment in the Senator's favor. Mr. Hanna 
vigorously denied that the man accused of bribery was any 
agent of his, and stigmatized the whole story as a lie. 

The accusation failed of the immediately beneficial effect 
which had been hoped for it ; but even though it did not pre- 
vent his election, his enemies naturally pushed it home for his 
subsequent embarrassment. They controlled the state Senate. 
On the very morning of the day dedicated to the decisive joint 
ballot a resolution was passed constituting a Committee of 
Investigation. The membership of the Committee, however, was 
such as to make it appear a prosecuting rather than an investi- 
gating body. Its chairman was Vernon H. Burke, the malcon- 
tent from Cuyahoga County who was Mr. Hanna's one per- 
sonal enemy in the Senate. He was assisted by three Democrats 
and by Senator Garfield — who declined to serve, but was not 
excused. An investigation conducted by such a body, which 
refused to permit the representation of the accused by counsel, 
could not be anything but extremely prejudiced. Mr. Hanna 
was advised by his attorneys to ignore the Committee, to refuse 
to recognize its jurisdiction, and neither to testify himself nor 
allow any of his friends and agents to testify. The consequence 
was that all the evidence unearthed by the Committee was 
dug up among Mr. Hanna's accusers. These witnesses were 
never sufficiently cross-examined, and their testimony was never 
supplemented and corrected by that of his agents said to be 
implicated. The report of the Committee claimed to prove 
(1) that an attempt was made to bribe J. C. Otis to vote for 
Mr. Hanna, (2) that an agent of Mr. Hanna's was the perpetra- 
tor of the attempt, and (3) that Mayor E. G. Rathbone, Charles 
F. Dick and H. H. Hollenbeck, Mr. Hanna's lieutenants, were 
implicated therein. 

This report was sent to the Senate of the United States and 
was referred to its Committee on Privileges and Elections. 
The report of the United States Senate Committee declared 
(1) that the evidence failed wholly to prove that Mr. Hanna 
was elected Senator through bribery, (2) that any agent was 
authorized by him to use corrupt methods, (3) or that he had 
iiny personal knowledge of the facts of the Otis case. The. 



SENATOR BY ELECTION 261 

only question upon which the Committee had any doubt was 
whether it should conduct an independent investigation of its 
O'vvn ; and this it decided not to do, because Mr. Hanna's title 
to his seat was not impeached, and because no demand for the 
prosecution of any further inquiry had been received from the 
state of Ohio. The Democratic Senators on the Committee 
urged that a further investigation ought to be made, but 
did not claim any proof of Mr. Hanna's implication in the 
affair. 

So the matter has rested until this day. Only on one occa- 
sion was the incident used by Mr. Hanna's political opponents. 
The dubious nature of the testimony which was supposed to 
prove Mr. Hanna's connection with the alleged attempt to bribe 
Otis prevented its exploitation. There is as much doubt to-day 
as fourteen years ago concerning what actually occurred. The 
true story can never be ascertained because certain essential 
witnesses, including the alleged agent, are dead. Our only 
interest in the matter relates to the attempt to make Mr. Hanna 
responsible for the mission which took the man to Cincinnati. 

Mr. Hanna's published repudiation of any connection with 
the business was contained in the following words: "I deny 
having authorized any agent or representative of mine to make 
any offer to Representative Otis or any other member of the 
Assembly. I never sent any man to Cincinnati to see Mr. Otis. 
I have never known or seen this particular man in my life, and 
have had no transactions with him." Alongside of this com- 
prehensive repudiation may be placed the concluding para- 
graphs of an affivadit of the supposed agent signed by him in 
Boston on March 12, 1898, and attested by Justin Whitney, 
Notary Public. "I did not go to Ohio by request of Senator 
Hanna directly or indirectly. I did not represent him, and never 
for a moment assumed to do so, but on the contrary I repeatedly 
stated that I did not act for either him or his Committee. What- 
ever I did there was upon my own judgment, based upon good 
legal advice, and for the good of the cause as I saw it. I am not 
now, and never have been, the agent of the agent or representa- 
tive of Senator Hanna, and as I have never been introduced to 
him he would have no means of recognizing me if I should 
meet him on the street." These statements are confirmed by 



262 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

the testimony before the Senate Committee both of J. C. Otis 
and the lawyer, Thomas C. Campbell. They both state ex- 
plicitly that the man denied that he knew or represented Mr. 
Hanna. 

The Committee of the Ohio Senate attempted to prove Mr. 
Hanna's connection with the alleged attempt at bribery by the 
testimony of various detectives, amateur and professional, who 
shadowed the supposed agent and others and overheard tele- 
phone conversations between the man in Cincinnati and the 
Hanna headquarters in Columbus. The United States Senate 
Committee on Privileges and Elections did not dismiss this testi- 
mony as entirely unworthy of belief. "It raises suspicions," so 
they say, "that Mr. Hanna's representatives in Columbus knew 
what the alleged agent was doing." Those suspicions were justi- 
fied. Major Rathbone did know of the mission to Cincinnati. 
The precise nature of the connection between the Hanna head- 
quarters and the emissary remains dubious ; but the following 
statements are corroborated by a sufficient number of witnesses 
to be considered as facts. The man went to Columbus at the 
request of Mr. C. C. Shayne, a furrier in New York, an ardent 
protectionist and a notorious busybody. Mr. Shayne called 
up the Hanna headquarters from New York and recommended 
him as an. able talker and negotiator. Mr. Hanna probably 
heard about the matter, but had nothing to do with it person- 
ally. The man was turned over to Major Rathbone, and after 
an interview with Rathbone in Columbus he went to Cincinnati. 
From there he did have conversations over the telephone with 
Rathbone in Columbus. The testimony as to what occurred in 
Cincinnati is hopelessly conflicting. If there is any truth in the 
affidavit, the only inducements offered by him to Otis to vote 
for Mr. Hanna were the "cordial approval of his party and the 
rewards which that would naturally bring to him." He admits 
having offered Thomas C. Campbell, during a later interview, a 
"retainer," which he says Mr. Campbell demanded in return 
for advising Otis to vote for Mr. Hanna. After the exposure 
he promptly quitted the state. 

It would be futile to indulge in any theories as to what actu- 
ally occurred. The probability is that the emissary was the 
victim of the men with whom he was negotiating rather than 



SENATOR BY ELECTION 263 

their intentional corrupter. His connection with the Hanna 
headquarters is admitted both by ex-Senator Charles Dick and 
Major Rathbone, but both of them exonerate Mr. Hanna from 
any but the most superficial acquaintance mth the business. 
Mr. Hanna's public statement does not assert that he never 
heard of the man, but only that he never saw him and did not 
authorize him directly or indirectly to make any offer to Otis. 
This statement is confirmed by the assertions of his own agents, 
by the affidavit of the emissary and by the testimony both of 
Otis and Campbell. Mr. Hanna's friends may very well be 
content to let it go at that, and his enemies should certainly give 
him the credit of one beneficial consideration. If Mr. Hanna 
had himself planned to purchase the vote of John C. Otis, it is 
reasonable to believe that the business would have been better 
managed. 

Everybody most closely associated with Mr. Hanna in this 
fight state unequivocally that the Senator always refused even 
to consider the corrupt use of money. He paid the expenses of 
the men who were working for him. Many of his assistants and 
supporters were subsequently rewarded by appointment to 
Federal or state offices. All of the Republican malcontents 
were black-listed and have never since recovered any influence 
in Ohio politics. But he never authorized any but these usual 
means of rewarding his friends and punishing his enemies. 
Moreover, his rejection of corrupt methods was not encouraged 
by any lack of easy and favorable opportunities. An obvious 
method of preventing the election of any other candidate would 
have been to send a couple of Democratic representatives out 
of the state. Certain of them were known, not merely to be 
open to persuasion, but eager to be persuaded. Several con- 
spicuous Republicans asked James B. Morrow to call Mr. 
Hanna's attention to one particular case. He listened good- 
naturedly, but answered : "I will not give a cent for any man's 
vote. I am not engaged in that kind of business. If I am to be 
defeated by the use of money, well and good; but I shall not 
spend a dollar illegitimately to prevent that defeat. I would not 
purchase a single vote — even if that were the only way to save 
me from being beaten." Mr. Morrow adds that during the 
fight he was in and out of Mr. Hanna's private room at all hours 



264 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

of the day and night and at the most unexpected moments, and 
that he never heard a suspicious word. 

Mr. James R. Garfield's testimony is equally definite. He 
heard of two specific instances in which representations were 
made to Mr. Hanna that a certain vote could be purchased, but 
without the slightest effect. During some talk about the oppor- 
tunities of aiding Democratic representatives to leave the state, 
Mr. Garfield said to him: "You know, of course, how I feel. 
If money is used I shall vote against you." The Senator re- 
plied, "Jim, I know just how you feel, and I should expect you 
to vote against me." No one who knows the kind of man Mr. 
Hanna was can doubt the sincerity of such assertions. If he 
had intended to purchase votes, he doubtless would not have 
talked about it in public, but neither would he have paraded any 
conscientious scruples against it. He was not a hypocrite, and 
he never pretended to be any better than he really was. His 
ambition to be elected Senator was indissolubly connected with 
his most vital aspirations. His own career, no less than that of 
McKinley's, demanded an honorable victory. Like every hon- 
est man he had conscientious scruples about buying votes for his 
own political benefit ; and his conscience, when aroused, was 
dictatorial. He believed certain practices were right which 
may have been wrong, but if he believed a practice to be wrong, 
he would have none of it. 

It does not follow that no money was corruptly used for Mr. 
Hanna's benefit. Columbus was full of rich friends less scrupu- 
lous than he. Many of these friends were Cleveland business 
men, who hated the idea of a possible McKisson election about 
as much as they did that of Mr. Hanna's defeat. They may 
have been willing to spend money in Mr. Hanna's interest and 
without his knowledge. Whether as a matter of fact any such 
money was spent I do not know, but under the circumstances 
the possibility thereof should be frankly admitted. 

Some of my readers may object that in describing the opposi- 
tion to Mr. Hanna's election as a conspiracy, and his Republican 
opponents as traitors, reprehensible methods and motives have 
been imputed to men who may have had conscientious reasons 
for their behavior. The epithets which have been used are 
literally correct. No blame could be attached to any Republi- 



i 



SENATOR BY ELECTION 265 

can who, during the campaign, had either opposed Mr. Hanna 
or had refused to support him. But his opponents adopted 
other methods. During the campaign they either expHcitly 
pledged their votes to him, or they did so indirectly by speaking 
from the same platform with him. If any sanctity attaches to 
public partisan and personal obligations, all but two or three of 
Mr. Hanna's Republican opponents were guilty of treachery; 
and they were traitors not only to their pledges and their party, 
but to the clearly expressed popular will. On the other hand the 
Democrats, in order to beat Mr. Hanna, cast their votes for a 
man who was a Republican "before the people" and who had 
not any real claim to their allegiance. The opposition was wholly 
without principle either in its purposes or methods. The Re- 
publicans were satisfying a personal grudge by means of a 
betrayal of their individual and partisan obligations. The 
Democrats joined them, so as to cut short then and there the 
political career of their most redoubtable opponent. The stock 
shibboleth of the conspirators was opposition to "Boss" rule; 
but this slogan, whatever its pertinence and weight, was sheer 
hypocrisy in the mouths of its authors. 

If Mark Hanna had been a "Boss" in the sense that Matthew 
Quay or Thomas C. Piatt were "Bosses," the conspiracy would 
have succeeded. He triumphed only because he represented 
the will of his party, and enjoyed the confidence of the Republi- 
can rank and file in his leadership. If he had not gone upon the 
stump, if he had not made a favorable impression upon his 
hearers, and if he had not created a genuine public opinion in 
his favor, his political career might well have ended in January, 
1898. At this critical moment in his public life he was saved, 
because he had the courage and the flexibility to break away 
from the limitations of a political manager and to try and create 
a genuine popular following. Thus his political personality 
emerged beyond the screen which always hides the real "Boss" 
from public inspection. In the nice balance of political forces 
upon which his election depended, the scale was tipped by his 
ability to create among enough of the people of Ohio the same 
kind of confidence in himself which until then had been con- 
fined to his business and political associates. 

On the day of election he mdde the following speech to his 
supporters in the Legislature : — 



266 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

"Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Ohio Legislature: 
I thank you with a grateful heart for the distinguished honor 
which you have just conferred upon me. I doubly thank you, 
because under the circumstances it comes to me as an assurance 
of your confidence — the assurance, which given to me in the 
beginning of this term of service to you and to my state, graces 
me with the strongest hope that I shall be able to fulfil your 
expectation and do my whole part by the whole people of Ohio. 
Standing outside of the line of the smoke of battle, which your 
President has just spoken of, and viewing this situation from 
the standpoint of a citizen of Ohio, I come to accept this high 
honor, recognizing that when I assume my duties in the United 
States Senate that I am the Senator for the whole people of Ohio. 
This is my native state. I was born in Ohio. I have always 
loved this commonwealth, have always striven to do what might 
be in my power to accomplish the advancement of her develop- 
ment and prosperity. If my endeavor is now transplanted to a 
different field of duty, that duty will be none the less incumbent 
upon me. In accepting this honor I accept in an appreciative 
sense the fulness of the responsibilities which go with it, and, 
under God, I promise my people to be a faithful servant to their 
interests during the entire time of my service. I thank you." 

These words are not really addressed to the Legislature. They 
are addressed to the people of his native state by a man who 
really wanted to represent his own people as a whole. He knew 
that he had really been elected by them ; and in the moment of 
his triumph he recognized fully both the source of the victory 
and its responsibilities. 

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XVIII 

During the campaign in the fall of 1897 the Democratic newspapers 
kept standing for days in black-faced capitals the following sentence, 
which was attributed to Mr. Hanna : "No man in public office owes 
the public anything." They obtained this little rule of official action 
from a letter which Mr. Hanna was supposed to have written to Mr. 
David K. Watson, at one time Attorney-General of Ohio, and which 
reproached him for having interfered with the business of the Standard 
Oil Company. Mr. Watson had brought suit against the Company 
because of the trust aprreement under wliich its business was then 



SENATOR BY ELECTION 267 

conducted. Pressure of all kinds was immediately brought to bear 
upon him to drop it. Mr. Hanna's letter was part of this pressure. 
No authentic copy of the letter was pubhshed, but the New York 
World, on August 11, 1897, had printed certain alleged extracts from 
it, including the phrase which the Democratic papers flourished in the 
face of their readers. 

The way in which these extracts came to be published is peculiar. 
When Mr. Hanna offered himself as a candidate for the Senate, a news- 
I paper correspondent named Francis B. Gessner recollected that seven 
! years before he had been allowed to read in Mr. Watson's office a letter 
> from Mark Hanna about the Standard Oil suit. He went to Mr. 
' Watson.who allowed him to read the letter, but not to copy it. On the 
; basis of what he remembered of its text, reenforced by what other 
I people to whom it had been shown remembered of it, he published in the 
; World the extracts which contained the sentence quoted above. These 
i extracts have been reprinted in Miss Ida Tarbell's "History of the 
Standard Oil Company," and do not concern us here. Mr. Watson 
, declares that after the publication of Mr. Gessner's article he answered 
j all inquiries by admitting the receipt of some such letter, but denying 
I the accuracy of the alleged extracts. 

: Mr. Watson further declares that Mr. Hanna at their next meeting 
after the publication of these supposed extracts asked for the original 
, of the letter and obtained from him a promise to surrender it. Several 
! weeks later, when Mr. Hanna was in Columbus, Mr. Watson went to the 
Neil House with the letter in his pocket. He claims to have received 
an offer of $50,000 for the original of this document from a prominent 
Democratic newspaper in the state. Nevertheless he gave it to Mr. 
Hanna at a private interview in Mr. Hanna's room at the Neil House. 
After reading it, Mr. Hanna turned to Mr. Watson (according to the 
latter's account) and said : " Dave ! you once told me that a man who 
would write such a letter ought not to be a United States Senator. 
lYou were right." After some further conversation the letter was 
torn into small pieces and destroyed. But Mr. Watson claims that 
as a precaution against subsequent misrepresentation he kept a copy 
of it. The following is asserted to be a transcript of the original 
document. 

" Cleveland, Ohio, Nov. 21, 1890. 
" Hon. David K. Watson, Columbus, Ohio. 
" Dear Sir: — 
" Some months ago, when I saw the announcement through the papers 
that you had begun a suit against the Standard Oil Co. in the Supreme 
Court, I intended, if opportunity presented, to talk with you, and 



268 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

failing in the personal interview, to write you a letter, but the subject 
passed out of my mind. Recently wliile in New York I learned from 
my friend, Mr. John D. Rockefeller, that such suit was still pending, 
and without any sohcitation on his part or suggestion from him, I de- 
termined to write you, believing that both political and business 
interests justified me in doing so. While I am not personally inter- 
ested in the Standard Oil Co., many of my closest friends are, and I 
have no doubt that many of the business associations with which I am 
connected are equally open to attack. The simple fact is, as you will 
discover, if you have not already done so, that in these modern days 
most commercial interests are properly and necessarily taking on the 
form of organization for the safety of investors, and the improvement 
of all conditions upon which business is done. There is no greater 
mistake for a man in or out of public place to make than to assimae that 
he owes any duty to the public or can in any manner advance his own 
position or interests by attacking the organizations under which ex- 
perience has taught business can best be done. From a party stand- 
point, interested in the success of the RepubUcan party, and regarding 
you as in the Une of political promotion, I must say that the identification 
of your office with litigation of this character is a great mistake. There 
is no public demand for a raid upon organized capital. For years the 
business of manufacturing oil has been done with great success at 
Cleveland, competition has been open and free, and the pubHc has 
been greatly benefited by the manner in which the oil business has been 
carried on. The Standard Oil Co. is officered and managed by some( 
of the best and strongest men in the country. They are pretty much alll 
Republicans and have been most liberal in their contributions to the' 
party, as I personally know, Mr. Rockefeller always quietly doing his 
share. I think I am in a position to know that the party in this state 
has been at times badly advised. We need for the struggles of the.^ 
future the cooperation of our strongest business interests and not theiri 
indifference or hostility. You will probably not argue with me in this.- 
I have been informed, though I can hardly credit the information, that 
Senator Sherman has encouraged or suggested this litigation. If 
that be correct, I would like to know it, because I shall certainly have 
something to say to the Senator myself. I simply say with respect to 
this matter, that prudence and caution require you to go very slow in 

this business. 

"Very truly yours, 

(Signed) " M. A. Hanna." 

On December 13, Mr. Watson answered with the letter published 
by Miss Tarbell in which he disclaimed any attack on organized capital 



SENATOR BY ELECTION 269 

and asserted that Senator Sherman had nothing whatever to do with 
the suit. Two weeks later he received from Mr. Hanna an answer 
which is reproduced below : — 

" Cleveland, Ohio, Dec. 27, 1890. 
"Hon. D. K. Watson, 
"Dear Sir: — 
"On my return from the East I find your favor of the 13th inst. 
and I am much obliged for your attention. I think I know a good 
deal about the Standard Oil and have from its beginning, as I 
have known the men who organized it for thirty years, and most of 
them are intimate friends. There has been 'no industry of greater 
benefit to our city, and there are large holdings among our enter- 
prising business men. They are indignant at this attack, and when the 
time comes will make their influence felt. Therefore I have said to 
you in all frankness that politically it is a very sad mistake, and I am 
sure will not result in much personal glory for you. I am glad to 
know that Senator Sherman has nothing to do with it, and for the 
same reason I wish you might have as little to do with it as possible 
from this time. 

" Truly yours, 

(Signed) " M. A. Hanna." 

The second of these letters is unquestionably genuine. Mr. James B. 
Morrow saw the original with Mr. Hanna's signature attached. The 
first of them is admittedly only a copy and obviously has no authenticity 
as a document. A man possessing a copy can make as many additional 
copies as he likes and add or suppress as much as suits his purpose. An 
alleged copy must consequently be scrutinized with care, and the copyist 
cannot complain, in case any part of the text is rejected which does not 
square with what we know about its supposed author. 

There is nothing in the letter of November 21 which in my opinion 
Mr. Hanna might not have written in November, 1890, except two 
sentences. The text reads: "While I am not personally interested 
in the Standard Oil Co. many of my closest friends are, and I have no 
doubt that many of the business associations with which I am connected 
are equally open to attack." It is true, of course, that certain of Mr. 
Hanna's friends and relatives were interested in the Standard Oil 
Company, but, so far as I know, none of the "business associations " with 
which he was connected was under any suspicion of being illegal. They 
certainlj'- were not organized and operated under a trust agreement, as 
was the Standard Oil Company, and they certainly could not have been 
attacked as monopolies or as combinations in restraint of trade. Of 



270 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

course Mr. Hanna may have written the sentence loosely and vaguely, 
in order to emphasize his general idea that the Standard Oil Company 
was merely one example of desirable organization in business, but why 
should he suggest to the Attorney-General of the state that part of his 
own business was being conducted in defiance of state laws, particularly 
in view of the fact that the assertion would have been untrue ? 

Much more serious, however, is the suspicion which must attach 
to the sentence : "There is no greater mistake for a man in or out of 
public place to make than to assume that he owes any duty to the public 
or can in any manner advance his own position or interests by attacking 
the organizations under which experience has taught business can best 
be done." A fair-minded man cannot read the foregoing sentences 
carefully without suspecting that the words "he owes any duty to the 
public or" have been interpolated. With those words omitted the 
meaning of the whole passage is consistent, whereas the phrase under 
suspicion adds an irrelevant idea which breaks the force of the rest 
of the sentence. Mr. Hanna might well have written, "There is no 
greater mistake for a man in or out of public place to make than to 
assume that he can in any manner advance his own interests by attack- 
ing the organizations," etc., but why, even had he believed it, should he 
be cynical and incoherent enough to throw in a remark that a public 
official owes no duty to the public ? The supposition is incredible. One 
can conceive that some such remark could be passed in private among 
a group of the lowest professional politicians or entirely unscrupulous 
business men, but for a man in semi-public life, no matter how corrupt 
personally, to commit such an idea to paper would be to convict him of 
childish folly. The folly becomes more than inexplicable when it is 
remembered that the recommendation was addressed to a man with 
whom Mr. Hanna was slightly acquainted, and who would have good 
ground to be aggrieved by the letter. A perversion so gross, so pal- 
pable and so stupid exposes itself. 

Whether or not any other passage in the letter is or is not genuine 
one does not like to assert with confidence. No doubt the greater 
part of it is authentic, but the suspicion which attaches to the whole 
document makes it impossible to accept absolutely any part of it and 
base a criticism of Mr. Hanna upon it. In general, however, there is 
this to be said. Much of the letter might have been written by Mr. 
Hanna in 1890, and, having done so, he might have wanted it destroyed 
in 1897. Moreover, he might have wanted to destroy it, not merely 
because it was troublesome, but because he was ashamed of it. A 
man who was to become United States Senator should not have 
reproached a state prosecuting attorney for bringing a plausible suit 
against a possibly illegal corporation, and he should not have intimated 



SENATOR BY ELECTION 271 

that for the attorney's own political welfare he should thereafter have 
as little as possible to do with such business. But Mr. Hanna had 
changed a good deal since the fall of 1890. He still believed that the 
organization of capital was a good thing and should not be discouraged 
by law. He still had very little curiosity whether as a matter of fact 
corporations like the Standard Oil Company were conducting their 
busmess illegally. He was still too complaisant about accepting 
money for political purposes from corporations whose legal standing was 
at best dubious. But he would not have reproached a state prosecuting 
attorney for attempting to enforce the law, nor would he have intimated 
that by so doing the man's political future would have been com- 
promised. 



CHAPTER XIX 

THREE YEARS OF TRANSITION 

An account of Mark Hanna's career in the Senate of the 
United States need touch only incidently upon many essential 
phases of the legislative and political history of his seven years 
of service. To associate the history of these years too inti- 
mately with Mr. Hanna's biography would be to convey a false 
impression of the scope of his political influence. In respect to 
certain problems confronting Mr. McKinley's administration, 
his preferences and opinions were extremely powerful. In re- 
spect to other questions, equally if not more important, his in- 
fluence was negligible. He was not the man to interfere m any 
business with which his past training and his present position 
did not make him very competent to deal; and m relation to 
many of the most pressing questions of public policy, his opin- 
ions were no more powerful and his advice no more useful than 
that of a dozen other Republican Senators. . , a , 

The first three years of Mr. Hanna's service m the Senate 
constituted a period of transition in his career. Never before 
had he occupied an important official position. Never before 
had he shouldered any personal responsibility for questions of 
public administration and policy. Hitherto his dominant politi- 
cal interest had been that of contriving the election of his friends 
and associates to more or less important offices. But suddenly 
he had become a part of the government -and an important 
part by virtue both of his constitutional and his extra-constitu- 
tionil powers. His extra-constitutional power as the confidential 
friend and adviser of the President and the chairman of the 
Republican National Committee was the natural product of his 
past achievements ; and these powers were exercised with vigor 
and with good judgment. But his official power as Senator 
did not immediately attain any considerable momentum, it 
was allowed to grow naturally and from relatively obscure and 

small beginnings. 

272 



THKEE YEARS OF TRANSITION 273 

There is a certain class of Senators, usually lawyers, who im- 
mediately become conspicuous, if not powerful, in the Senate 
chamber by virtue of a good voice, a habit of fluent public speak- 
ing and a large amount of public self-assurance. But Mr. 
Hanna was still an inexperienced speaker ; and he never cared 
to talk in public, except when he could do so with some authority. 
Before becoming prominent in the official proceedings of the 
Senate, he was bound, in obedience to his usual practice, to begin 
by securing the personal confidence of his colleagues. He must 
first establish in his new surroundings that group of personal 
friendships and alliances which always constituted the founda- 
tion of his leadership. 

Neither could his success in becoming a Senate leader be taken 
for granted. That body is something of a club with strong 
domestic prejudices and traditions. Success, no matter how 
brilliant, obtained outside that body does not guarantee to a 
newcomer any corresponding consideration from his colleagues. 
He has to earn their consideration by acceptable behavior on the 
spot. Mr. Hanna's prominence as the friend of McKinley and 
as the chairman of the National Committee rather tended to 
make many of the older Senators suspicious. They would have 
been quick to resent any assumption of power or any interfer- 
ence with the course of legislation by virtue of Mr. Hanna 's rela- 
tions with the President. Moreover, Mr. Haiuia was only a 
business man; and while many business men had managed to 
secure seats in the Senate, they had rarely exercised much influ- 
ence therein. The typical Senator is a lawyer. The debates 
in that body which arouse the keenest local interest usually 
involve constitutional questions on which none but a lawyer can 
speak with authority. Thus Mr. Hanna had many barriers to 
break down before his leadership outside the Senate could be 
paralleled by any corresponding influence within that body. 

By a curious fatality, moreover, the most pressing problems 
of the first three years of Mr. McKinley's administration were 
remote from those questions of domestic politics, with which Mr. 
Hanna's position, training and experience had made him com- 
petent to deal. As we have seen, President McKinley assumed 
office pledged above all to put an end to a period of economic 
depression and to restore prosperity. The administration was 



274 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

constituted with the domestic situation chiefly in mind, and a 
large amount of legislation was planned for the purpose of stimu- 
lating industrial activity. But all these plans were embarrassed, , 
if not entirely frustrated, by the insurrection in Cuba. The ■ 
inability of the Spanish government to suppress the rebellion, 
the ruthless means adopted to that end and the growing sym- - 
pathy of a large part of the American people with the insurgents ; 
was gradually creating an extremely critical situation. The 
President and his Cabinet desired and intended to avoid war 
with Cuba, both because they thought it unnecessary and be- 
cause they feared that war would prevent them from redeeming i; 
the pledge to restore prosperity. Yet by its attitude towards s 
the Spanish policy in Cuba, the administration at the very out-- 
set of its career was in danger of being pushed into an unpopular r 
position and of losing the confidence of the country. 

The President had called an extra session of Congress for the 
purpose of restoring prosperity by means of tariff revision, and I 
the war party in Congress used this opportunity to agitate for 
intervention in Cuba. A few days after the inauguration a 
joint resolution recognizing the belligerency of the Cuban in- 
surgents was pressed for consideration in the Senate. The 
debate thereon ran along for a couple of months. Much of this 
time was occupied in discussing the question whether the recogni- 
tion of belligerency or independence was an executive or legisla- 
tive function ; but behind the constitutional discussion lay two( 
divergent opinions as to the desirability of forcing a war oni 
Spain. Almost all the Democrats and a minority of the Repub- 
licans wanted to bring about war. The recognition either of 
belligerency or independence was a means to that end. A reso- 
lution recognizing the belligerency of the Cuban insurgents 
passed the Senate on May 20, 1897. Senator Hanna, opposed 
as he was to war and committed as he was to the support of the 
President, voted uniformly with the minority. A very small 
minority it was. Only thirteen Senators voted with him, while 
forty-one favored the resolution. The resolution itself was never I 
even considered in the House of Representatives. 

Not, however, until the following spring was the Cuban situa-i 
tion to become really critical; and the interval gave Congres&^ 
an opportunity to undertake the legislation which the President 



THREE YEARS OF TRANSITION 275 

and Mr. Hanna believed to be essential to the cure of the eco- 
nomic depression. As it happened, the complexion of the two 
Houses enabled the Republicans to pass a tariff bill, but pre- 
vented them from taking any action on the currency. They had 
a large majority in the House, but in the Senate the balance of 
power was held by a body of pro-silver protectionists chiefly 
from the Far West. In a little over two weeks after the meeting 
of Congress, the Dingley Bill had been reported and passed in 
the House, only twenty-two out of its one hundred and sixty- 
three pages being discussed in detail. The Senate was more 
deliberate, and its contribution to the final form in which the 
bill was enacted was correspondingly substantial. The bill was 
not reported until the eighth of May, and it was not signed by 
the President until July 24. 

The Republican leaders in both Houses desired to pass a bill 
which, while raising the rates, would not run any danger of in- 
curring the unpopularity of the McKinley Bill. But they were 
obliged ultimately to accept a series of schedules which ranged 
higher than they intended. The wool schedule was the heart 
of the matter. By a combination between Senators represent- 
ing woollen manufacturing states and those representing wool 
growing states, who were none other than the pro-silver protec- 
tionists, the duties on wool and the compensating plus the pro- 
tective duties on woollen goods were restored to about the level 
of the McKinley Bill. On cotton goods the general tendency 
was to impose slightly lower duties than those of 1890. On silks 
and linens, on the other hand, the changes were radical, and the 
duties higher than ever before in the history of the country. On 
chinaware the rates of 1890 were restored, whereas most of the 
metal duties were left very much as they had been in 1894. 

Whatever opinion one may form either of the political or 
economic desirability of the Dingley Bill, it apparently served 
the purpose of its progenitors. Increasing business activity 
followed upon its enactment; and the high protectionists sin- 
cerely believed that without such a stimulus President McKin- 
ley would never have proved to be the advance agent of prosper- 
ity. Senator Hanna, of course, warmly approved the changes 
proposed by the bill, but just how much influence he had upon 
its details cannot be traced by any public indications. He was 



276 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

not a member of the Finance Committee, and not once did he 
open his mouth during the pubhc discussion of the schedules. 
His colleague, Senator Foraker, in a speech made on the stump 
during the fall of 1897, gave the following description of Mr. 
Hanna's contribution to the making of the Dingley Bill. "No 
man not on the Committee did more than Senator Hanna to win 
the success that was achieved. I doubt if any other man did as 
much. He devoted himself with assiduity to the study of the 
various schedules. He listened with patience to the claims and 
appeals of all, and with rare good judgment aided the Committee 
and the Senate in reaching just conclusions." Only slight 
changes were made in those schedules in which his own firm was 
financially interested. The rates on iron ore remained at forty 
cents a ton, and that on pig-iron at four dollars. The duty on 
coal was increased from forty to sixty-five cents a ton, but it was 
not restored to the level of 1890, which had been seventy-five cents 

a ton. 

Senator Hanna's only appearance in public durmg this first 
session of the fifty-fifth Congress was for the purpose of calling 
up a bill, introduced by himself and providing for a new public 
building in Cleveland. It was passed without opposition. Of 
course, he also introduced a number of private pension bills. 
The committees to which he was assigned included that on 
Enrolled Bills, Mines and Mining, Naval Affairs, Pensions, Rail- 
roads and the Select Committee on Transportation and Sale 
. , of Meat Products. During the second session of the same Con- 
"!/ gress Mr. Hanna remained in the background. Not once did 
he address the Senate. His behavior was doubtless dictated by 
his wise preference for silence when he could not speak with 
authority and effect. 

If he did not speak during the second session of the fifty-fifth 
Congress, it was not because the course of events failed to m- 
terest him. It was during this session that the stubborn pur- 
pose of President McKinley and his Cabinet to avoid war 
proved abortive. The intention of the Republican leaders had 
been to transact only necessary business, and then to adjourn 
early, if possible by May 1. They wanted to avoid any further 
agitation until the slowly rising wind of business activity had 
scattered the fruits of "prosperity " over the whole country; 



THREE YEARS OF TRANSITION 277 

and above all, they sought to leave the administration free to 
deal with the Cuban situation without interference from Con- 
gress. These plans were frustrated by the increasing fury of the 
demand for intervention in Cuba; and after February 15, the 
date on which the Maine was blown up in the harbor of Havana, 
it became extremely doubtful whether a war with Spain could be 
avoided. Indeed, war became certain, in case the investigation 
indicated that the explosion which wrecked the vessel and killed 
the crew could be traced to a source outside of its hull. 

Before, however, the critical phase of the Cuban situation was 
reached, the Senate was occupied with certain routine business. 
The way in which Mr. Hanna voted upon several of these 
matters must be recorded as indicating his attitude upon public 
questions. In the first place he voted in favor of Senator Lodge 's 
bill, imposing an educational qualification on immigrants ; and 
in casting the vote he had with him, not only his regular Repub- 
lican associates, but a majority of the Senate. In the second 
place he voted in favor of seating in the Senate one Henry W. 
Corbett, who had been appointed Senator from the state of 
Oregon by a Republican governor, after the failure of a Demo- 
cratic Legislature, because of Republican abstentions, to elect a 
Democrat. This was a matter on which there was some division 
of opinion among the abler constitutional lawyers in the Senate, 
Mr. Spooner being in favor of seating Mr. Corbett and Mr. Piatt 
of Connecticut being against it. Mr. Hanna's vote is interest- 
ing, chiefly because of his subsequent vote in relation to a 
similar question affecting the title of Senator Quay of Pennsyl- 
vania to his seat. Finally on January 28 Mr. Hanna was one of 
a minority of twenty-four who during a discussion of a currency 
resolution, raised for political purposes, voted in favor of the 
payment of all bonds of the United States in gold coin or its 
equivalent. 

In the meantime the administration was unable to stem the 
tide which both in Congress and the country was making for 
war. Up to the last moment the President sought to find some 
middle ground. He sought to placate American public opinion 
by acting energetically on behalf of American citizens in Cuba, 
and by pressing Spain to improve its conduct of the war and to 
redress the grievances of its Cuban subjects. If the Alaine had 



278 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

not been blown up, he might have succeeded, for Spain was willing 
to make almost any concession which did not actually terminate 
its possession of Cuba. As it was, the President risked his popu- 
larity and the confidence of the country by his reluctaiice to 
abandon a peaceful solution. He has been severely criticised 
for not holding out until the end ; but had he done so, he might 
well have ruined his administration and split his party without 
actually preserving peace. Congress wanted Avar and had the 
power to declare it. The people were willing. If war had been 
declared, in spite of his opposition, neither Congress nor the coun- 
try would have had sufficient confidence in him as the com- 
mander-in-chief of its army and navy. 

In the end the President consented to a reversal of policy, 
which squared badly with the spirit and purpose of his earlier 
negotiations with Spain. Such was the price which Mr. McKin- 
ley and the country had to pay for his erroneous estimate of the 
general situation. Public opinion had come to believe that the 
independence of Cuba was the only satisfactory cure for the 
maladies of Cuba; and it was willing, if necessary, to fight for 
that conviction. The President had made the kind of a mistake 
which, in case he had been an English Prime Minister, would have 
forced him to resign and to pass on his executive responsibility ; 
but as an American President, faced by a question of war or 
peace, he had no such alternative. He was obliged to turn war- 
rior and keep the country's conjBdence as the commander-in-chief 
of its army and navy. 

Senator Hanna's attitude absolutely coincided with that of 
the President. The outbreak of war seemed to imperil the whole 
policy of domestic ■ economic amelioration which he placed be- 
fore every other object of political action. He expected that it 
would check and perhaps extinguish the tendency towards busi- 
ness recovery which had really gathered some headway during 
the early months of 1898. His fears were groundless. The 
Spanish War in its immediate effect helped and strengthened the 
conscious and unconscious forces in American life, upon which 
the realization of his favorite economic policy happened at that 
juncture to depend. The uncertainties of the war and the re- 
sulting increase in taxation no doubt checked the returning tide 
of prosperity, but only for a short time. On the other hand, a 



THREE YEARS OF TRANSITION 279 

foreign enemy served to distract attention from the deep-lying 
domestic dissensions which had been exposed by the campaign 
of 1896. The pulse of the country was quickened by its little 
adventure. The sense of common national feeling and interest, 
which becomes weak and dull after a generation of economic 
sectional and class conflicts, was reawakened, and the new vital- 
ity imparted to the national consciousness was bound to work 
in favor of a party and an administration which represented the 
traditional national economic policy. 

In spite of the inefficient management of the war, the adminis- 
tration pulled through this troubled period credited with an in- 
crease in public confidence. By virtue of this access of popu- 
larity it obtained a freer hand in dealing with questions of 
domestic policy. In the absence of a war with Spain, it is at 
least doubtful whether such would have been the case. If the 
Dingley Bill failed to have the same effect upon the political 
fortunes of its creators as the McKinley, Wilson and Payne- 
Aldrich bills, the war rather than the provisions of that measure 
may be considered partly responsible. The congressional and 
state elections of the fall of 1898 were favorable to the Republi- 
cans. They retained their control of the lower House and gained 
the control of the Senate. The still more decisive victory which 
followed in the presidential campaign of 1900 was as much the 
effect of the war as it was of the revival of prosperity. 

The foregoing remarks are true, not only of the war, but of 
the immediate political consequences of the war. Both Mr. 
McKinley and Mr. Haima would have been glad to avoid the 
risks and the complications involved by the acquisition of the 
Philippines and Puerto Rico. The policy of extra-territorial 
expansion did not harmonize with the President's inherited 
phrases. But he was enough of a realist in politics to know a 
Solemn Fact when it was forced upon his attention. Under 
the influence of men like Senator Orville Piatt, he finally con- 
sented to accept responsibility for an American Colonial policy. 
In the end both he and Mr. Hanna became convinced Imperial- 
ists ; and their Imperialism may have been due to a final under- 
standing of the close relation between the traditions of the Re-'^ 
publican party and, a policy of national expansion. A party 
which originated in the deliberate assumption of a neglected 



280 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

national responsibility cannot well avoid the assumption of new 
responsibilities, whenever such a course is dictated by a legiti- 
mate national interest. 

In the meantime Mr. Hanna was very slowly and tentatively 
developing his own legislative preferences and was finding, as it 
were, his senatorial legs. During the third and final session of 
the fifty-fifth Congress he began to appear in more conspicu- 
ous parts than that of a silent voter. On Dec. 19, 1898, he 
introduced a bill "to promote the commerce and increase the 
foreign trade of the United States and to provide auxiliary 
cruisers, transports and seamen for government use, when 
necessary." This measure which came finally to be known as 
the Hanna-Frye Subsidy Bill, and which was very much amended 
before it emerged from the Committee on Commerce, never 
came to a discussion, much less a vote, during the fifty-fifth 
Congress. It embodied a policy in which Senator Hanna be- 
came more and more interested and which must be considered 
his legislative hobby. He had already been preaching on the 
stump the desirability of some governmental subsidy for the 
American merchant marine, and he continued to do so until 
the end. The reasons for its peculiar importance in Senator 
Hanna's eyes will be explained in a later chapter. 

It must not go unrecorded, also, that during this final session 
of the fifty-fifth Congress Senator Hanna first appeared as a 
speaker on the floor of the Senate. The occasion of his appear- 
ance is characteristic of the man. Its object was to perform 
a service for an insignificant but deserving person who, as he 
believed, was not being fairly treated. A German-American 
named Louis Gathmann had invented a so-called aerial torpedo 
which he had submitted to the Bureau of Ordinance of the Navy 
Department. Making no impression on its chief, Mr. Gathmann 
took his story to the Naval Committee of the Senate, of which 
Senator Hanna was a member, and aroused the Senator's inter- 
est. By means of Mr. Hanna's influence with Assistant Secre- 
tary Roosevelt, the inventor obtained a chance to test his shell 
at the proving grounds of the navy at Indian Head, Maryland. 
Several other tests followed which convinced Senator Hanna 
that the "Gathmann Torpedo" was a good thing. He sub- 
mitted an amendment to the naval appropriation bill, author- 



THREE YEARS OF TRANSITION 281 

izing the Secretary of the Navy to spend $250,000 in equipping 
two coast defence monitors with the shells. The amendment 
was not mandatory, but placed the spending of the money at the 
discretion of the Secretary of the Navy. Mr. Hanna's asso- 
ciates on the Naval Committee agreed to this recommendation. 
There were some objections to it in the Senate, and Mr. Hanna 
on several occasions spoke briefly in its favor. The appropria- 
tion was adopted in the Senate, rejected by the House and 
failed in conference. Mr. Hanna's only interest in the matter 
was derived from his confidence in the inventor and his belief 
that a prejudice against the inventor by the navy and army 
chiefs had prevented the "Gathmann Torpedo" from obtaining 
'a fair trial. 

As soon as Congress adjourned, Senator Hanna, accompanied 
by his family, went for over a month to Thomasville, Georgia, 
where President McKinley and others were entertained as his 
guests. His health at this time was not as good as it had been, 
and he was taking what opportunity he could of rest and recrea- 
tion. By May he was in Cleveland again, but not for long. He 
was planning a trip abroad, — the first which he had ever taken, — 
for the purpose of seeking some alleviation for his increasingly 
frequent rheumatic attacks. When he was about to start, it 
looked as if the trip would have to be abandoned, because a 
serious strike was threatened on the Cleveland street railway, 
which competed with the one of which he was President. But 
the employees of his own company proved loyal to the manage- 
ment, and Senator Hanna was able to get away. He returned 
in the fall, not particularly pleased and benefited by the trip, 
and resolute never to go to Europe again. 

When the fifty-sixth Congress assembled in December, 1899, 
the Republicans were in a position to exercise much more com- 
plete control and to adopt a more vigorous policy than they had 
during the fifty-fifth Congress. Their majority in the House 
had been maintained ; and they had gained in the meantime 
a majority in the Senate sufficient for all party purposes. The 
session was one of the utmost importance, less because of the 
large amount of legislation accomplished, than because the pol- 
icy of the government in dealing with Puerto Rico and the insu- 
lar dependencies was established — not, to be sure, in its details, 



282 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

but in its general outlines. A bill was passed organizing a 
territorial government for the Hawaiian Islands and defining 
temporarily the fiscal relations between Puerto Rico and the 
United States. It was this bill which provoked the most pro- 
longed and virulent debate. It raised both a legal question as 
to the extent of congressional authority in the insular depend- 
encies and how far it was subject to constitutional restric- 
tions, and the economic question whether as a matter of policy 
Congress should impose any tariff on imports from Puerto Rico 
into the United States. 

From the point of view of Senator Hanna's life these questions 
do not have to be discussed on their merits, because, as has al- 
ready been pointed out, he was in relation to them a follower 
rather than a leader. Throughout all these long debates, ex- 
tending over so many months, during which the legal abilities 
of Senator Spooner and others were conspicuously expressed,, 
and during which the senior Senator from Ohio, Mr. Foraker, 
also displayed talents of a high order, Senator Hanna did not 
break his silence. He voted, of course, throughout for the 
orthodox Republican policy ; and the aspect of the matter with 
which he was most concerned was its effect upon the coming 
presidential campaign. 

Another question which the fifty-sixth Congress at its first 
session effectually disposed of was that of the standard of value. 
Inasmuch as the Republicans were for the first time in absolute 
control of both Houses, they were in a position to redeem their 
pledges and to establish gold as the statutory standard of value 
of the United States. This they did not hesitate to do, in spite 
of the fact that an election was coming on. They felt that they 
had the country behind them. They had weathered the squalls 
of the Spanish War. The business prosperity of the country 
had really been restored, and there was every evidence that a 
still further business expansion would follow. Prices had in- 
creased, but so had wages. A general air of satisfaction was 
overspreading the countrj^. It was just the time to redeem the 
pledge of 1896, and to establish the gold standard, not merely 
as a matter of policy, but with a definite legal sanction. 

In the debates on the currency bill Senator Hanna did not 
break the silence, which with but one insignificant exception 



THREE YEARS OF TRANSITION 283 

had characterized his behavior in the Senate. The occasion 
had not yet come for his appearance in pubHc as a senatorial 
leader, although it was fast approaching. His public attitude 
and behavior is of importance in relation to only three incidents 
of the session; and these incidents differ widely one from 
another in their relative importance and in their subject-matter. 
The first of these questions concerned the title of Mr. 
' Matthew S. Quay of Pennsylvania to a seat in the Senate. Mr. 
I Quay's term as Senator had expired on March 3, 1899. The 
! Legislature began to ballot upon his successor on January 17. 
Daily ballots were taken from that date until April 20, the day 
I of adjournment, no candidate having in the meantime received 
I a majority of the votes. Mr. Quay was the caucus nominee of 
his party, but a sufficiently strong minority of "insurgents," who 
objected to his political methods and record, had persisted in 
supporting another candidate. The day after the Legislature 
adjourned Governor Stone appointed Mr. Quay Senator un- 
til the next meeting of the Legislature. A question was 
immediately raised as to the legality of the appointment ; and 
on Jan. 23, 1900, the Committee on Privileges and Elec- 
tions of the Senate reported a resolution to the effect that Mr. 
Quay was not legally entitled to the seat. The question was 
exhaustively debated during the following three months and 
.did not reach a final vote until April 24. On that day the report 
iof the Committee was adopted by a vote of 33 to 32, so that Mr. 
Quay's claim to the seat was denied. Mr. Hanna was paired 
with Senator Depew on this roll-call, and although not present, 
ihis vote counted against Mr. Quay. Had he voted the other 
way, the latter would have been seated. 

I The incident is of interest because it raised important politi- 
iical as well as legal issues. A grave and ambiguous Constitu- 
tional question was involved. State Governors have the power, 
,|in case vacancies occur during a recess of the Legislature, to 
l|"make temporary appointments until the next meeting of the 
Legislature, which shall then fill such vacancies"; but in this 
;instance the vacancy had occurred during a session of the Legis- 
Ijlature and the Legislature had failed to fill it. Does the Gov- 
3rnor's power of appointment extend to cases in which a 
Legislature has had the opportunity of electing a Senator and 



284 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

has failed to take advantage of it? While there were prece- 
dents on both sides, the weight of authority tended against any- 
such interpretation of the Governor's power. In the same way 
the abler Constitutional lawyers in the Senate were for the most 
part opposed to the seating of Mr. Quay. Nevertheless they ' 
were far from unanimous in their opinion. Senators Hoar and 1 
Spooner, for instance, believed that Mr. Quay was entitled to > 
his seat. In casting their votes, individual Senators were evi- - 
dently influenced by great diversity of motives. The majority 
of the Republicans voted for Mr. Quay and the majority of the 
Democrats against him, but among the pro-Quay Democratic ) 
minority were some of the better lawyers and more public-spirited 1 
Senators in the party, while among the anti-Quay Republican i 
minority were Senators as different as Hale, Gallinger, Hawley, , 
Orville Piatt, Proctor and McMillan. 

The question was one on which party lines were not decisively 
drawn, and on which a Senator might have voted either way in i 
good company. A vote, actually determined by considerations 
of political or party expediency, could be defended by plausible 
legal arguments. A man in Senator Hanna's personal position nj 
would naturally allow his vote in reference to an ambiguous 
legal question to be determined chiefly by a group of political 
considerations, which might well have dictated the indorsement 
of Mr. Quay's claim. Mr. Hanna believed in party organiza-i 
tion and party loyalty. Quay was the caucus nominee. His if 
opponents were insurgent reformers, who had bolted a regularii 
nomination, and who were making trouble within the party justil 
previous to a National Convention to be held in Philadelphia t 
and a presidential campaign. The question was being judged ( 
all over the country, not on legal but on political grounds. Then 
bolters were being praised, because they had dared to defy then 
caucus, in order to defeat for Senator a political " boss " of doubt-l 
ful integrity. Mr. Hanna's own election had been opposed by; 
analogous methods and on ostensibly similar grounds. Twoi 
years earlier Mr. Hanna had supported the claim of a Senator) 
from Oregon whose legal title to the seat was of the same gen-i 
eral character as that of Mr. Quay. Nevertheless he voted* 
against Mr. Quay and thereby incurred the embarrassing hostil-l: 
ity of a man who continued to be powerful in an important!' 



THREE YEARS OF TRANSITION 285 

Republican state. When Mr. Quay's name was read aloud in 
the Philadelphia Convention as the member of the National 
Committee from Pennsylvania, the applause consumed several 
minutes. 

His vote cannot be explained on the ground of any former 
antagonism between the two men. Mx". Hanna was the last 
person in the world to allow a personal quarrel to interfere with 
desirable action in the interest of Republican harmony. Neither 
was his vote likely to be dictated merely by technical Constitu- 
tional reasons, although these may have had some weight. He 
must have believed that a Governor has no right to fill a vacancy 
in the Senate with a man whom the Legislature might have 
elected, but instead deliberately took the opportunity of reject- 
ing. Such a belief would have squared with the dependence, 
characteristic of his political methods upon the support of public 
opinion. 

Mr. Hanna never left any public record of the reason for his 
anti-Quay vote, but soon thereafter a question did come up, 
which aroused him to participate in a somewhat important 
Senate debate. This question was connected with the adminis- 
tration of the Navy Department. It will be recollected that his 

I one previous utterance in the Senate chamber concerned a small 

[detail in the business of the same department. Ever since his 
appointment as Senator, he had been a member of the Com- 
mittee on Naval Affairs. He had devoted a good deal of time 

[to the work of the Committee; and as a large portion of it in- 
volved the sort of business questions with which he was pecul- 
iarly competent to deal, he became very influential in the 

'Committee and finally took part in the public discussion of 

inaval affairs. 

( The immediate cause of his first important intervention in the 
public debates was a disagreement that had arisen over the price 
which the government was to pay for armor-plate. The occa- 
sion of this interference, its purpose and its spirit are all charac- 
teristic of the man. The House had differed from the Senate, 
not only as to the price which the government ought to pay for 
armor-plate, but also as to the source from which it should be 
procured. There were only two plants in the United States 
equipped for its manufacture — those of the Carnegie and Beth- 



28G MAKCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

lehem companies ; and they did not compete with each other. 
They had both been insisting on charging S545 a ton on all con- 
tracts for plate. The Senate believed that this charge was 
extortionate. It had, consequently, amended the House Bill, , 
which made the price discretionary with the Secretary of the ■ 
Navy, in a very radical way. It had insisted that in case the ; 
Secretary could not obtain armor-plate for $445 a ton, he should 1 
proceed with the construction of a government factory. When i 
the bill went into conference, the conferrees could not reach any ^ 
agreement in reference to this difference, and they returned to i 
their respective Houses for further instructions. 

While the Senate was discussing the question whether it t 
should insist upon its own provisions or make certain conces- • 
sions, Mr. Hanna took part in the debate. He was evidently 
provoked because certain Senators, who had no technical ! 
knowledge of steel manufacturing, had jumped without suffi- 
cient inquiry to the conclusion that the price was extortionate. . 
The purpose of his speech was to insist that the price of $445 'i 
a ton, under the conditions then prevailing, was a low rather than > 
a high price, that a government factory could not be built inside 
of five years, that, if constructed, government plate would cost 
more than plate manufactured by the Carnegie or the Bethle- 
hem companies, and that the whole question was one which 
should be left, as the House of Representatives proposed, to the 
discretion of the Secretary of the Navy. His argument was 
made with force and with effect. He was constantly interrupted i 
by Senator Tillman and others, and at one juncture he pro-i- 
tested against these interruptions because he was a "tyro" inn 
debating and wanted "half a chance." Nevertheless he held his • 
own very well. He was particularly tenacious in sticking to the li 
main thread of his discourse, in spite of many attempts to raisel 
irrelevant issues. The only action immediately taken by thee 
Senate was to send the bill back to conference. 

Again the attempt to reach an agreement in conferences 
failed, whereupon Senator Penrose proposed that the question of )1 
a "reasonable and equitable" price be left to the Secretary of»! 
the Navy, but he was required, in the event of failure to purchase«« 
on reasonable terms, to build a factory. Mr. Hanna spoke inr 
favor of this amendment, which corresponded much more closely> 



THREE YEARS OF TRANSITION 287 

with his views than did the previous action of the Senate. After 
an acrid discussion in which the Democrats freely accused their 
opponents of favoring the armor-plate companies in return for 
campaign contributions, the Penrose amendment was adopted 
by a vote of 39 to 35. A number of Republican Senators, includ- 
ing Beveridge, Foraker, Perkins, Chandler and Spooner, voted 
with the Democrats. To all appearances Mr. Hanna's inter- 
ference on this occasion served to determine the Senate's final 
action. Until he spoke the tendency both of the discussion of 
the subject and of the several votes had been to preclude any 
agreement with the armor-plate companies. A proposal to build 
a government factory, in case they would not accept a price 
of $400 a ton, had been defeated by a majority of only two. Mr. 
Hanna was the first Senator to come out vigorously and un- 
equivocally for a policy of making a compromise with the com- 
panies. The Penrose amendment virtually repudiated the atti- 
tude which for some years the Senate had assumed on the matter. 
It was intended to bring about the actual purchase of the 
armor-plate imperatively needed by the government. This 
policy prevailed; and it prevailed chiefly by virtue of Mr. 
Hannai's arguments and influence. 

The policy openly and successfully advocated by Mr. Hanna 
in this matter was the natural result of his political and eco- 
j nomic creed. As a man trained in business he knew that the ques- 
; tion of what was or was not a reasonable price for armor-plate 
was one which should be left to a responsible administrative 
official. He believed that the Senate had been acting on erron- 
, eous information in placing such a low limit upon a reasonable 
I price for armor-plate. What he knew of the steel and iron busi- 
i' ness convinced him that the manufacturers had not been extor- 
tionate in their demands ; and, of course, he instinctively sym- 
, pathized with the point of view of a business man. But it 
required some courage to announce these opinions. The armor- 
plate companies were unpopular. He could and would be 
I charged with favoring for partisan benefit a manufacturing in- 
terest which was seeking to bleed the Treasury ; and in answer- 
ing these charges he was at a disadvantage, because he could not 
appeal to any authentic figures in support of his opinion. He 
was obliged to rely upon personal estimates which differed from 



288 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

those of Republican colleagues on the Naval Committee. More- 
over, he went too far in his defence of the armor-plate companies 
when he asserted that the government was not entitled to accu- 
rate information from the companies' books as to the cost of the 
plate. When pressed on this point during the debate, he tended 
to back down. But he was sincere in his conviction that the 
mterests of the navy demanded an agreement with the com- 
panies ; and the history of the subsequent relations between 
the government and the plate-makers indicates that he was 
right. 

With a national campaign impending, the Democrats imme- 
diately took advantage of the opening to charge that the action 
of the Senator was dictated by the necessities of the chairman 
of the National Committee. He accepted the challenge without 
flinching. He never sought to disguise the fact that he repre- 
sented business interests in politics or to shirk responsibility for 
his opinions. On this particular occasion there resulted an 
acrimonious and disagreeable personal quarrel. During the 
debate Senator Pettigrew of South Dakota had stated that in 
1892 a manufacturer of war-ships had contributed $400,000 to 
the Republican campaign fund upon the assurance that he 
would be reimbursed from the contracts for naval construc- 
tion. The assertion aroused no immediate protest, and it was 
later repeated by Senator Bacon in a debate upon an anti-trust 
bill. This time the attack provoked a denial from Senator 
Carter, the chairman of the Republican National Committee in 
1892, and a general disclaimer of any relation between campaign 
contributions and government contracts from Senator Hanna. 
Senator Pettigrew immediately returned to the charge, and after 
reiterating that his information was derived from Mr. Cramp i 
himself, went on to make a personal attack upon Mr. Hanna. 
He brought up the report of the Committee on Privileges and 
Elections in reference to the validity of Mr. Hanna's own seat in 
the Senate. He quoted at length from the minority report of : 
that Committee, which had urged the desirability of further 
investigation. The Senate Committee, it will be remembered, 
had refused to make any investigation of its own, but had dis- 
missed the whole matter on the ground that the testimony taken 
by the Committee of the Ohio State Senate, headed by Vernon, i 



■ THREE YEARS OF TRANSITION 289 

Burke, was entirely inconclusive. Mr. Hanna immediately 
claimed the floor as a matter of personal privilege and made the 
following statement : — 

" Mr. President : I feel like offering an apology to the Senate for 
pursuing this suhject any farther. The fact that the Senator from 
South Dakota had the document on his desk, and the readiness with 
which he seemed to be prepared to take up these questions, show that 
it is all a prearranged plan. So his statement that he has been forced 
into this discussion by any remarks of mine goes for nothung. 

" I wish to say a few words with reference to the personal aspects of 
this matter. Of course it is well known to the country that there was a 
pretty hvely personal fight in Columbus, and it is also known, because 
it was given the widest publicity, that there was a conspiracy (to defeat 
me) on the part of the Democratic party and a few traitors in the 
Republican party of the same, nature and kind as the gentlemen from 
South Dakota. 

" This is the first time I have heard that report,^ and I was interested 
very much in the cunning devices that were concocted, as I believe, 
out of whole cloth. The first knowledge I had that anything of this 
kind was going on came to me in a publication of a Democratic evening 
paper in Columbus on the evening of the day when the conversation 
so reported was said to have taken place. I immediately sent for a 
reporter of the Associated Press and dictated a few lines to the public, 
denying in toio the truth of any statement made that I had any connec- 
tion with it or knew anything about it. That was my case and there 

' it has rested from that day to this. 

"As far as the instigators of this conspiracy are concerned I have never 
seen or heard of them from that day to this, and as to the perpetrator 
of the deed, it was the Democratic party in the state of Ohio through 
its agents in the State Senate at Columbus, and its allies and traitors, 
prominent among whom was this man Burke, from my native city, who 

' upon every stiunp in that campaign pledged himself that if elected to the 
State Senate, it would be his first privilege and duty, to vote for me 
for the United States Senate. He got to the Senate through these 
promises. 

" Mr. President, \\nth reference to the investigation in the Legislature, 
Mr. Burke's vote was the balance of power in the Ohio Senate. He 

*Mr. Pettigrew had quoted from the testimony of the Burke Com- 
mittee as to a telephone conversation between the alleged agent and a 
"Major" (Dick or Rathbone), in which the "Major'! answered after 
an apparent consultation with 'Mr. Hanna. 

u 



200 MAIU^TS ALONZO llANNA, IMS LIFE AND WORK 

was a traitor; aiul ho lent liiiusolf to this conspiracy. When the in- 
vestigation was onhMvd thiMT was one Rcpubhcan in the Senate, Mr. 
James R. C.ariiold, wl\o was conced(Hl the priviU'ge of being one of 
the investigating Committee. The others composing the Connnitteo 
were three Democrats and this traitor Burke, ^^■hetl INIr.C.arlield 
made the request., or tlie demand rather, that I should be rei)n\s('nt(Hi by 
counsel, it was ilenieil. lOvory particle of testimony i)roduct>d b<>fore 
that Committee was arranged beforehand, and everything that, looked 
to defence was stricketi out or driven out." 

I have quoted the foregoing stateniont beeiuise it is the only 
one which Mr. liuuna oviu- nuuU> in reforenco to the hrilxM-y 
charge. The incident practically terminated tln^nnvith, al- 
though TMr. Foraker took the floor for a while with a short de- 
fence of his colleague, based eutiri>ly upon Mr. (^lartic^hl's minor- 
ity report. The only public ec^ho of the proceedings was tl\(^ 
publication in the Congressional Record of the testimony taken 
by the Senate Committee and its report ; and that (U)ubt.l(>ss wa.s 
the chief object of the Senator from South Dakota. The 
matter was never pursuinl any farther either in or out of Con- 
gress. As a consequence of the attack, Mr. Ilaima couceiv(>(l 
a lively resentment against Senator Pettigrew; and this piM-- 
sonal feeling influenced, as we shall see, his lu^havior during the 
approaching Presidential election. The whole fracas, wiiich 
took place on June 5, 1000, was miM-ely a preliminary skirmish 
in the National campaign, which on that date had already 
been practically started. 

By the spring of 1000 the peculiar combination of personal 
and political vicissitudes, which for some yc^ars had kept ]\Ir. 
Ilanna somewhat in the background of politics, had i)assed. 
The Spanish War had come and gone. The country was pre- 
pared to return with quick(Mied inten\st to the consi(l(>ration of 
its domestic problems. The issue between the Imi^cM-ialists and 
their opponents had still to be fought ; but its discussion ttMuled 
more and more to bring out the relation bi^tweiMi the adop- 
tion of a Colonial policy and the expansion of tlu> fori'ign trade 
of the country. The American people ^vcro becoming aroused 
to the fact that tlu^ promis(nl n^storatioii of prosperity had taken 
place, and also that prosperity, liki^ economic famine, has its 
dangers and its victims. Mr. Hanna's dominant interest in 



THREE YEAHH fjF TRANSITIOH 201 

politics was centred on the relation iM^fhan politirr-j and bani- 
nfc«3, which the renewal of intere«ft in inxXum^l economic proF>- 
lema had again Fjroi2g>jt to the front. lie was prf^arhfH Uj 
become more conifpicuoixH than ever in the di.-xnx->Jon of thf:?/; 
problem.-;. He wa-: no longer merely the p^^litical marjager and 
friend of a Prr^sidential candi^late or a Presii'^lent. During the 
three intervening year-i he ha/J nlowly Mid qn'udly \ff^^i *;«tal>- 
li.shing on firm groiind.^ his own per-/jnal power and influence in 
the new field-; of action, which Wi U;en operae^J for him f/y Mr. 
McKinley'.H election to tFie Presid/emcy. 

He had made a plac*; for him^lf in the .Senat>e. Little by 
little he }jad gaine^l the confideri/>^ of thf; leading m/;mber<j of 
that fxxly, .so that when a proper occasion wa?f off^^T^xi hie 
asciimed a ."hare of leaden<hip. Such an occ'a^ion wa^i pr^;"''/;nt'yl 
b>' the debate over t?ie policy of tli* Government in r^^-ipect to 
the purchiajje of armor-plate. He had seized it, artd ha/J sud- 
denly disclf^^J the amount of pergonal inflijf^ce which he had 
acquired among hi* colleagues*. Never after t.^ie fir-:t •j'AHion of 
the fifty-Tiixth Congress wa« he merely an apparently ob«/;ure 
voting member of thiat body. Xot being a wordy man h/; did 
not speak freqioently, but he .^jke whenever the occasion de- 
manded -speech and alwaj'a with effedt. But w.^iether he spoke 
or not hie had beeome ooe <rf the half-dozen men wJjo had be- 
eorne practically reapoonUe for the saccessdvl dtspntch of the 
biisiness of the Senate, 

Hehad,.«incetbewiiit^of t99S, beeai estaUkdied in hki lead^- 
ship of bis own state, as well a«; of the Senate, The otttbazst of 
pr>pular indignation which bad helped him to overcome tiie ooo- 

-;t/?y to pre'/ent his ejection l^t him in effective political con7 
:. .. of the z^tate of Ohio ; and that control he retamed until his 
death. Open oppos^ion to Mm within the party pra/^tiealfy dis- 

v^^ared. He did not attend the Convraatioo held in (l^Amn- 
.. .. on June 21, 1898, beeaose so soon after the outbreak of the 
war, Congreaeional duties kept him in Washington; bot bis 
a^>^nce did not dimin^ his influence. He sent to that body a 
letter which is a good iDostration o€ part»an phrase-making, 
and which is quoted as an exaiiq)le of his ineseanng abiHty to 
wcfl^ op hk( fdlow-BcpoUieaiis with "lining" words : — 



292 MAKCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

Washington, D.C, June 20. 
" H. M. Daugherty, Esq., Chairman. 

" My dear Sir: — 

"I sincerely regret that my duties here will prevent my ac- 
ceptance of the honor to preside at the State Convention on the 
21st instant. It is a great disappointment to me and I am only 
reconciled by the consciousness that I am better serving my 
party by remaining at my post in Washington. I am with you 
in spirit and offer as my keynote — ' Republicanism in its broad- 
est, truest sense — devotion to principle and loyalty to party 
organization — the administration of President William McKin- 
ley as a fulfilment of our pledges to the American people, and as 
a guarantee of the future prosperity of the country.' 

"In offering my rights to the Convention please convey to the 
representatives of the Republicans of Ohio my high appreciation 
of the compliment and honor they have paid me and the desire 
I have to always merit their confidence and respect. 

"Believing that wisdom and good judgment will control their 
deliberations and with best wishes, I remain 

"Sincerely yours, 

" M. A. Hanna." 

He had, of course, the best of reasons for believing that wisdom 
and good judgment would control their deliberations. 

During the fall of 1898 no local officials of any importance 
were elected in Ohio, and Mr. Hanna was under no ne -essity of 
bestowing much attention on his own state. His great pre- 
occupation was with the outcome of the Congressional elections. 
In case the Republicans lost control of the Lower House, as so 
frequently happened on an "off year," and particularly on an 
"off year" succeeding the passage of a tariff bill and a decisive 
victory, both the prestige and the plans of the administration 
would be very seriously damaged. As a matter of fact, there was 
serious danger of such a loss. The popularity of the administra- 
tion had suffered because of the conduct of the war. The 
Republican Congressional Committee scarcely expected to elect 
a majority of Republican Representatives. In looking the situ- 
ation over, it was decided that the best place to make the fight 
was m the West. The war was popular in that part of the coun- 



THREE YEARS OF TRANSITION 293 

try, and there appeared to be a fair chance of winning back some 
of the ground which had been lost by the party on the silver 
issue. 

Ordinarily the Chairman of the National Committee does not 
have much to do with a Congressional campaign ; but in the fall 
of 1898 Mr. Hanna rendered the Congressional Committee effec- 
tive and indispensable assistance. On October 14 he wrote to 
Mr. Thomas H. Carter, who had preceded him as Chairman of 
the National Committee : — 

"My dear Senator : — 

"I have just returned after three weeks' absence in the East, 
where I have been working harder than I ever did in my life to 
secure funds for the Congressional Committee, without which 
they would have been obliged to shut up shop. I milked the 
country and turned over all the funds to Chairman Babcock. 
I don't know whether I can get any more ; but I can try and I 
assure you it will give me pleasure to serve you in any way I can. 

"Sincerely yours, 

"M. A. Hanna." 

He did succeed in raising more money, which was spent chiefly 
in the states of Kansas, Nebraska, Montana, Idaho and Wyo- 
ming with the object, not only of obtaining additional Republi- 
can representation in the Lower House, but of the electing 
Legislatures which would return Republican Senators. 

The o'Jttcome may be described in Mr. Hanna's own words. 
After the election a meeting of mutual congratulation was called 
by the Tippecanoe Club of Cleveland. On this occasion Mr. 
Hanna said: "It is a matter of great congratulation to us of 
Cleveland that the election resulted in a vote of confidence in 
the administration and its policy. When I went East in Septem- 
ber I was met with the statement that we would lose the House. 
Chairman Babcock of the Congressional Committee told me 
that we would surely lose the House east of the Mississippi 
River, which proved to be true. But there is great gratification 
in noting that the House was saved by the states west of the 
Missouri River — the very states where the free silver craze had 
its strongest hold on the people. The Republicans of those 
states, who had wandered after strange Gods, returned to wor- 



294 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

ship at the shrme of prosperity." The evidence indicates that 
it was the war rather than prosperity which had brought these 
Repubhcans back to the fold. In the East a certain reaction in 
pubhc opinion against the administration was noticeable. Mr. 
Theodore Roosevelt, who in the eyes of the country was the 
chief military hero of the war, was elected by only a small major- 
ity to the Governorship of New York. But the West, which had 
wanted the war more unanimously than had the East, which 
had an instinctive relish for the excitements and the hazards of 
war, and which was Imperialist in feeling and conviction, rallied 
to the administration, which, however unwillingly, had re- 
sponded to the call of military patriotism. The war, rather 
than the timid beginnings of an era of prosperity, was uppermost 
in the voters' minds during the fall of 1898. The truth of this 
explanation of the facts is confirmed by the irresistible demand, 
which a year and a half later proceeded from the Republicans of 
the West, for the nomination of Theodore Roosevelt as Vice- 
President. 

During the following year Mr. Hanna's leadership of the 
Republican party in Ohio received still more emphatic confirma- 
tion. Mayor McKisson was, indeed, renominated by the 
Cleveland Republicans after a bitter fight at the primaries, but 
failed of reelection. Not for ten years did a Republican again 
become Mayor of Cleveland. Nevertheless, although Mr. 
Hanna exercised less control over the political destiny of his own 
city than he had a decade earlier, he continued supreme in the 
state. The Convention held in Columbus on June 1, 1899, 
nominated for Governor Mr. George K. Nash, one of Mr. Hanna's 
close associates. The nomination was the outcome of an under- 
standing between Mr. Hanna and Mr. George B. Cox, the "Boss" 
of Cincinnati. A letter from Mr. Hanna to Mr. Cox, written 
about a week before the date of the Convention, gives some 
idea of the relations existing at that time between the two men. 

"My dear Sir: — 

"I am in receipt of yours of the 19th inst., the contents of 
which were carefully noted. I fully sympathize with your posi- 
tion that we should be guided by whatever is for the best inter- 
ests of the party in our action at the State Convention. I will 



THREE YEARS OF TRANSITION 295 

be glad to cooperate with you to that end. Of course, no one can 
tell about the choice of candidates. I will tell you frankly that 
I am not pledged to any one, but I am opposed to Mr. Daugh- 
erty from a party standpoint, and I understand that we agree in 
that position. You are right in your judgment that we should 
not meet before going to Columbus ; but I will see you some 
time during the night before the first day of the Convention. 

"I admire your good sense and good management and have 
faith that we can work together. 

"Sincerely yours, 

"M. A. Hanna." 

The campaign that followed in the fall of 1899 was very lively. 
Mr. Hanna's personal prominence and his relations with the 
administration made it of national importance, while the fact 
that John R. McLean was the Democratic nominee gave the 
people of Ohio a chance to vote on an echo of the senatorial fight 
of January, 1898. The speakers on both sides discussed national 
issues exclusively. Mr. Hanna put in a large part of October 
on the stump, and was greeted everywhere with favor and en- 
thusiasm by large crowds. He spoke incidentally on the issue 
of Imperialism; but in the great majority of his speeches he 
claimed support for the Republican party, because of the fulfil- 
ment of its pledges. By the fall of 1899 prosperity had been 
undoubtedly restored, and equally without doubt the revival of 
business enterprise was in part due to the increasing confidence 
of business men in the political situation. A political party can 
very rarely claim any responsibility for the course of business 
during one of its periods of domination ; but in this case the 
Republicans were justified in crediting themselves and their 
leaders with the business improvement. The Bryan Democ- 
racy and the "Populistic" agitation in the West associated 
therewith had threatened the business of the country with real 
dangers ; and their successful opponents had contributed both 
to the exorcism of the free silver ghost and to the renewal of 
general confidence. 

The speeches of Mr. Hanna delivered in the fall of 1899 give 
the first clear and well-rounded expression of his answer to 
the general American economic problem. The situation had 



296 MAECUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

changed essentially since 1897. Not only had prosperity really 
come, but it had brought with it unexpected developments. 
The latter part of 1898 and 1899 had constituted a period of 
unprecedented industrial reorganization. Almost every morn- 
ing newspaper was filled with accounts of the formation of new 
railroad and industrial combinations. The relation between 
this process of business consolidation and the existing Republi- 
can political supremacy was unmistakable. It became the 
subject of Democratic attack during the fall of 1899, and Mr. 
Hanna did not hesitate or fear to come out frankly in favor of 
these combinations. He approved of them as a natural busi- 
ness growth, due to the excesses of desperate competition which 
had prevailed during the business depression. He regarded 
them, furthermore, as necessary instruments for the develop- 
ment of the export trade of the country, which at that juncture 
was becoming unprecedentedly large in manufactured products. 
He urged upon his listeners the desirability of his own bill sub- 
sidizing American shipping as a necessary help to the proper 
development of this export trade. He wanted the government 
to take this further step in promoting industry, in order that 
American manufacturers might have the advantage of adequate 
means of transportation in making their assault on the markets 
of the world. 

The result was an emphatic indorsement of the administra- 
tion, Mr. George K. Nash was elected by a plurality of about 
50,000 votes over McLean. The tide had evidently turned in 
the East as well as in the West. Similar testimonials were ob- 
tained in other states, and undoubtedly the increasing prosper- 
ity of business and the effect thereof upon the earnings of labor 
contributed decisively to the Republican success. The renomi- 
nation of the President, who had fought the war and under 
whose administration prosperity had returned was assured, 
while at the same time there was every indication that Mr. 
Bryan would again be the candidate of the Democratic party. 

Seldom has any administration after three years in office com- 
manded such united support from its party as in the beginning 
of 1900 did the administration of Mr. McKinley. Much of the 
credit of this result belongs to the diplomacy with which the 
President handled the Republican leaders in and out of Congress. 



I 



THEEE YEARS OF TRANSITION 297 



He had the gift of refusing requests without incurring enmity, 
of smoothing over disagreements, of concihating his opponents, 
of retaining his friends without necessarily doing too much for 
them, of overlooking his own personal grievances and of steer- 
ing the virtuous middle path between the extremes and eccen- 
tricities of party opinion. But decisive as was the President's 
contribution to the popularity of his administration, Mr. Hanna 
also deserves a certain share of the credit. More than any other 
single man, with the exception of the President himself, Mr. 
Hanna was responsible for the operation of that most vital of 
party functions, the distribution of patronage. Under his 
direction and that of the President the appointments to office 
became, as it rarely had been in the past, a source of strength 
to the McKinley administration. 

During these years Mr. Hanna accomplished in an exception- 
ally able manner the work of reenforcing and consolidating the 
existing leadership of the Republicans. The distribution of 
patronage necessarily occasions many personal disappointments 
and grievances, which weaken the President with certain in- 
dividuals and factions in his party. Any disposition on the part 
of the President or his responsible advisers to play favorites or 
to cherish grudges, any tendency to misjudge men and to be 
deceived by plausible misrepresentation, any failure to dis- 
tinguish properly between the more influential and the less 
influential factions, has a damaging effect upon party harmony 
and its power of effective cooperation. To name only recent 
examples Mr. Cleveland, Mr. Harrison and Mr. Taft have all 
weakened their administrations by mistakes in selections to 
office. No doubt President McKinley and Mr. Hanna made 
similar mistakes both from the point of view of administrative 
efficiency and of good feeling within the party, but on the whole 
they certainly exercised the President's power of appointment 
with unusual success. They not only selected for the higher 
offices efficient public servants, but by virtue of an unusually 
clear understanding of individuals and local political conditions, 
they made leading Republicans feel, in spite of certain individ- 
ual grievances, that the offices were being distributed for the 
best interests of the whole party. 

So far as Mr. Hanna was concerned, this success was due to 



298 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

his usual ability in partially systematizing and organizing the 
distribution of offices, while at the same time giving life to the 
system by tact and good judgment in dealing with individuals 
and with exceptional cases. In all those Northern states in 
which the Republicans exercised effective power, the system was 
already established and required merely good judgment in its 
application. It was in the South that he introduced a new and 
what he believed to be a definite system of making Federal 
appointments. The local offices were usually filled on the rec- 
ommendation of the defeated congressional candidate, and 
Mr. Hanna expected by the recognition of these leaders of forlorn 
hopes to induce a better quality of men to run for the office. 
For the higher Federal offices, such as the United States Judges 
and Attorneys, the recommendations were usually accepted of a 
Board of Referees — consisting of the defeated candidate for 
Governor, the chairman of the State Committee, and the mem- 
ber of the National Committee from that state. To a large 
extent the system worked automatically all over the Union, but 
of course any such method goes to pieces, in so far as conflicting 
individual or factional claims are intruded. It was in dealing 
with these exceptional cases that Mr. McKinley's tact was useful 
as well as Mr. Hanna's gift of understanding other men, of 
getting their confidence and of bending or persuading them to 
his will. 

In all these matters Mr. Hanna's disposition to live and let 
live, his instinct for dealing candidly and fairly with the other 
man, was as much of a help to him in politics as it had been in 
business. When he could not do what was asked of him, he did 
not hesitate or equivocate. He told plainly why he must refuse, 
and as his reasons were usually convincing, the applicant rarely 
departed with a grievance. Moreover, his decisions and recom- 
mendations were really dictated by the welfare of the party and 
not by personal interest or favoritism. He did, indeed, pursue 
relentlessly the Ohio Republicans, who had entered the con- 
spiracy against his election to the Senate, and he rewarded 
almost all of his prominent supporters. But the testimony is 
unanimous that in other respects his recommendations for office 
were both disinterested and wise. He never presumed upon his 
own power either with the President, the heads of departments 



THREE YEARS OF TRANSITION 299 

or with his colleagues. His influence was based largely upon his 
instinctive sense of its own necessary limits. If he had really 
been or tried to be an autocrat beyond the limits within which 
autocratic management was permissible under the official and 
unofficial rules, his influence would soon have withered away. 

Certain of Mr. Hanna's political methods have frequently 
been misinterpreted. The facts that he was indifferent to the 
Civil Service law and believed in rewarding party workers with %> 
government offices, have created an impression that he was also '- 
indifferent to efficiency in public departmental work. Such was 
far from being the case. He wanted to put good men in all im- 
portant offices. Once they were installed, he was careful to 
leave them alone. Many different officials, who directly or 
indirectly owed their appointment to Mr. Hanna, have asserted 
emphatically that he never bothered them with recommenda- 
tions about their assistants or about the conduct of their offices. 
Pressure was continually being brought to bear upon him to 
obtain favors for various people from the heads of executive 
departments in Washington, He would sometimes write letters, 
stating the request and adding that he would be glad to see it 
granted. But in such cases he would almost always add a post- 
script in his own handwriting, advising his correspondent that 
if his request was in any way injurious to departmental disci- 
pline or efficiency, it should be ignored — as indeed they often 
were. As another illustration to the same effect I have before 
me a copy of a letter to Mr. Frank M. Chandler in which he was 
advising the latter about the nomination of certain judges for 
the Court of Common Pleas in Cuyahoga County : "Pick good 
men above all other considerations," he wrote, and emphasized 
the sentence with an underline. "I would rather take our 
chances with good candidates, and if defeated, be defeated with 
good men." Many other letters to similar effect could be 
quoted. 

He objected to Civil Service reform as much from the point 
of view of a business man as from that of a politician. He knew ^-^^/^ 
that any private business would be ruined which tended to make " 
subordinates independent of their chiefs. When he named a 
man for a responsible office, he always allowed the appointee to 
select his own assistants. After Mr. Charles F. Leach had been 



300 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

made Collector of Customs in Cleveland, he went to Mr. Hanna's 
office and showed the Senator a long list of good Republicans 
who had applied for places. Mr. Hanna refused to interfere. 
He mentioned certain names and said that he would be glad to 
have them considered, but he told Mr. Leach to use his own 
judgment. "You will be responsible for the conduct of your 
office and must select your own subordinates." When Mr. 
Frank M. Chandler was appointed United States marshal in 
Cleveland he was advised by the Department of Justice to be 
very careful in his selection of deputies, and what followed can 
best be told in his own words : "I talked matters over with Mr. 
Hanna, who was in Washington, and he told me to be careful 
about my selections, but he mentioned certain men whom he 
would have liked taken care of, if possible. I did as he sug- 
gested, and found that the men named did not meet the standard 
which I wished to maintain. I laid the result of my investiga- 
tions before Mr. Hanna, and he said : * That doesn't look as if 
you wanted my men. You must be responsible for the conduct 
of your office. Go ahead and select whom you want. Get good 
men on whom you can rely.'" Mr. Charles C. Dewstoe, who 
had been appointed Postmaster of Cleveland on the recommen- 
dation of Congressman Burton, but who consulted Mr. Hanna 
about his subordinates, supplies testimony to a similar effect. 

It would be of course absurd to claim that Mr. Hanna did not 
frequently have incompetent party workers appointed to office. 
He was a practical politician, who worked with the machine. 
He looked askance at any attempt to reform prevailing political 
methods, which might temporarily interfere with partisan har- 
mony and efficiency. He cooperated with some of the worst 
elements in his party as well as with the best. He conceived it 
as his business above all to keep the Republicans united, so that 
they could march to victory under his leadership. They could 
be kept united only in case the existing local organizations were 
accepted and possible corruption overlooked. Reformers who 
were opposed to the local machines, and were thereby endangering 
local Republican ascendency, obtained no sympathy from him. 
But although he worked exclusively with the machine and used 
government offices to pay personal and partisan political debts, 
he was far from indifferent to the desirability of appointing to 



THREE YEARS OF TRANSITION 301 

office able and upright men. The dislike which Civil Service 
reformers entertain for the business of distributing the spoils 
of office for the purpose of rewarding party politicians have 
tended to make them class all spoilsmen together and to visit on 
them all a joint condemnation. But the task of distributing 
patronage has a very human side to it and involves rules and 
values of its own. Mark Hanna accepted the system; he be- 
lieved in it under existing political conditions ; he even developed 
it. He and Mr. McKinley between them actually made it a 
source of strength rather than a source of weakness to the ad- 
ministration and to the party. But if they did so that was 
because in some measure they dignified it. They put a large 
measure of fair play and an honest demand for efficient service 
into a system of public appointment that offers strong tempta- 
tions and opportunities for mere favoritism, for prejudice, for 
misjudgment and for abuses and perversions of all kinds. 



CHAPTER XX 

THE CONVENTION OF 1900 

No National Convention of either party ever assembled under 
fairer auspices than the Republican Convention of 1900. There 
was Uttle disagreement or misgiving within the party as to the 
candidate wlio was to head the ticket or as to tlie platform on 
which he was to stand. The unanimity with which President 
McKinley was renominated was a fair expression of a substan- 
tially unanimous sentiment in his favor among Republicans of 
all classes and all sections. The only suggestion of discontent 
against the official leadership came from the Republican machine 
of Pemisylvania, headed by Matthew Quay ; and everybody 
knew that the causes of this discontent were personal. Even 
personal grievances were, however, the rare exception. Few 
Presidents at the end of their first term have ever received a 
njore general and hearty indorsement from his partisan asso- 
ciates than did William McKinley. 

The indorsement of Mr. McKinley included the indorsement 
of his political prime minister — Mark Hanna. The party, as 
a whole, was as well satisfied with his share of the leadership as 
they were with the President's. In some parts of the country 
he was, of course, more popular than in others. Certain of the 
states of New England, for instance, were no more than luke- 
warm. Their leaders would not have been sorry to embarrass the 
administration and Mr. Hanna, but they were powerless. Mr. 
Hanna had the Middle West solidly behind, and he had the 
organization, almost all over the country, enthusiastically in 
his favor. The personal leadership which he had been quietly 
reenforcing and consolidating during the intervening years was, 
when the Convention met, suddenly made conspicuous and 
manifest. He did not control the Convention. In one impor- 
tant respect, it proved, like the Convention of 1896, to have 
a will of its own. But he was by far the most influential Re- 

302 



THE CONVENTION OF 1900 303 

publican among those who gathered in Philadelphia and in all 
but one matter his will was dominant. Immediately after 
the Convention he disclosed to a friend in a confidential mo- 
ment that he would not exchange the personal power which he 
was able to exert with that of the President. 

Throughout the fall of 1899 and the winter of 1900 he labored 
hard and successfully to establish the dominant issue for the 
coming election. He wanted above all the campaign of 1900 
to be the continuation and consummation of the campaign of 
1896. The fundamental fact was that the Republicans had been 
placed in power in order to accomplish certain results ; and they 
had been as good as their promises. They had established the 
gold standard ; they had restored the confidence of business men 
in the American financial system ; they had disproved the claims 
of Mr. Bryan that the single gold standard meant economic 
privation and disaster; and they had bestowed comparative 
prosperity on the business man and on the wage-earner. Al- 
though the party in power, they could afford to take high 
ground. They were not on the defensive. If any administra- 
tion and party ever had a right to claim a continuation of public 
confidence, because of a sequence between promise and perform- 
ance, the first McKinley administration and the President's 
party were most assuredly in that position. 

Mr. Hanna in his speech before the Ohio State Convention on 
April 24, 1900, attempted to strike the proper keynote of the 
campaign. " I say the spirit of the hour should be one of abso- 
lute fearlessness on the part of the Republicans. We are con- 
scious, as your chairman has said, of having fulfilled every 
promise made. We took this country into our hands and under 
our care after four years of unprecedented vicissitudes in busi- 
ness. At our Convention in St. Louis we proclaimed the doc- 
trine and policy of the Republican party, upon which for twenty 
years had been built the material interests of the country. We 
promised such reforms and such economic legislation as would 
produce a return of these benefits. We even said that we 
would go beyond the ideas of our fathers in the benefits which 
would flow from the perpetuation of our policy. We now stand 
on what we have achieved and accomplished in respect to the 
material interests of this country. Looking in the face of such 



304 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

results, I repeat your chairman 's words : ' Do we want a 
change ? ' " Such was the stock Repubhcan campaign argument, 
which was repeated during the next six months from every plat- 
form, and which was finally summed up by Mr. Hanna in the 
phrase "Let well enough alone." 

The wicked Democrats, however, repudiated the statement 
that any such simple and definite issue divided the parties. 
They proposed to divert the minds of the voters from the suc- 
cess of Republican policy and from the substantial benefits of 
Republican control by raising various additional questions. As 
Mr. Hanna said in the speech from which I have already quoted : 
"The Republicans of the United States are confronted to-day 
with many new propositions and issues thrown around us like 
tangled grass in our pathway by the Democratic party" : and 
it was difficult to judge in advance whether any of these issues 
would actually serve to distract public attention from the smok- 
ing factory chimneys and the full dinner-pail. 

When the Republican Convention assembled in June, the 
Democratic Convention was two weeks away, but its candidate 
and doctrine could be accurately predicted. William J. Bryan 
was to be the candidate and he was to be supported by a com- 
bination of the old Democracy and trans-Mississippi Populism. 
The platform was to reaffirm the silver heresy of 1896, because 
Mr. Bryan would not repudiate a doctrine which he had urged 
upon the American people with so much eloquence and confi- 
dence ; but not very much homage was to be paid to it during 
the campaign. The Republicans were to be denounced, partly 
because they had committed the country to a perilous and un- 
democratic Imperialistic adventure in the Philippines, and 
because they had been recreant to the "plain duty" of the na- 
tional government towards Puerto Rico. But most of all they 
were held up to execration because during their four years of 
office the process of industrial combination had made enormous 
strides, and because the Republicans had delivered the Ameri- 
can people bound hand and foot into the power of the big cor- 
porations. 

The administration did not and could not avoid the issue 
raised by the acquisition of the Philippines and the bloody sup- 
pression of the Philippine rebellion ; but Mr. McKinley did not 



THE CONVENTION OF 1900 305 

want too much emphasis placed upon it. Both the Cuban War 
and its consequences had been forced upon him. He had finally 
insisted upon the cession of the Philippines by Spain, not be- 
cause he welcomed the assumption by the national government 
of such responsibilities, but because the alternative looked still 
more dubious. By a refusal he would have aUenated that part 
of the country which contributed most of his personal following, 
while at the same time he would not have avoided a certain re- 
sponsibility towards the Philippines, created by the military 
situation in those islands. He would have liked to keep the 
country and his administration free from any such entangle- 
ments, both because they squared ill with his inherited phrases 
and because they prevented the country from concentrating 
its attention on the great drama of prosperity, of which he was 
the advance agent. Consequently, while ably and vigorously 
defended a policy of expansion, it was more or less a source of 
embarrassment to him. There was a real danger that public 
opinion might be shocked and alienated by the necessarily bloody 
suppression of Philippine insurrection. In all these respects 
Mr. Hanna agreed with his chief. He was enough of a realist 
in politics not to have any scruples against a policy of extra- 
territorial expansion, but was not interested in it, and he re- 
garded its intrusion into the campaign as a mere befogging of 
the essential issue. 

The "trust" issue, on the other hand, Mr. Hanna welcomed 
rather than feared. More than any other American political 
leader of equal prominence, he was not afraid to identify him- 
self openly with the cause of corporate aggrandizement. His 
public attitude towards the matter was modified somewhat by 
Mr. McKinley's consistent desire to keep in the middle of the 
road. He always declared his opposition to the "trusts," in so 
far as they endeavored to create a monoplj' and absolutely con- 
trol prices. But his sympathies were on the side of organized 
capital. He knew that the enormous impulse, which the process 
of railroad and industrial consolidation had received since 1898, 
had been caused by a desire to escape from certain critical evils 
resulting from unrestrained competition; and he knew that the 
organization of larger corporate units resulted in many real and 
desirable economies in the transaction of business. Any forcible 



1/ 



306 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

interference with the process might have injurious effects on in- 
dustrial and economical activity. The revival of prosperity was 
associated with the reorganization of business methods, and Mr. 
Hanna believed so devoutly in the former that he was not dis- 
posed to question the latter. 

In holding this belief Mr. Hanna was fairly representative of 
the dominant trend of public opinion. There were, indeed, 
plain indications that certain elements in public opinion, not 
ordinarily inclined to sectionalism or radicalism, were becoming 
uneasy at the spectacle of unchecked corporate aggrandizement. 
But their mieasiness had not become lively and aggressive. 
Radical opposition to the large corporations was still confined 
chiefly to Western Democrats and Populists, and their opposi- 
tion alienated public opinion, because it was associated with so 
many economic and financial heresies, and because it was so 
plainly biassed by sectional interests and objects. In spite of 
certain misgivings the ordinary patriotic American was inclined 
to accept the process of consolidation as inevitable and desirable 
and to associate the enemies of the "trusts" with the enemies 
of prosperity. At that particular juncture the majority of 
American voters, whether farmers, business men or wage- 
earners, were, after their many years of famine, prosperity-mad. 

The "trust" issue, consequently, did not cause very much 
alarm at the headquarters of the Republican national committee. 
Mr. Hanna knew that it would be flourished valiantly all over 
the country, but he felt that the criticism would be discounted, 
because of the source from which it came. The "trust" plank 
in the platform of 1900 was written by Mr. Hanna himself after 
consultation with the President. A draft of it exists in Mr. 
Hanna's own handwriting, and it is reproduced in facsimile, in 
order both to give an example of Mr. Hanna's handwriting and 
to call attention to the emendations in the draft. The word 
"honest" is added before "aggregations of capital," possibly 
at the suggestion of the prudent President, and as originally 
written the plank declared such "aggregations" to be necessary 
only to the development of foreign trade. The change is of 
importance chiefly as indicating the way in which Mr. Hanna 
instinctively regarded the relation of the "trusts" to American 
business. In 1900 exports of manufactures were increasing by 



THE CONVENTION OF 1900 



307 



leaps and bounds, particularly in the highly organized indus- 
tries. The large industrial unit was considered to be a more 
effective agent in the difficult work of creating foreign markets 
than the smaller one. This aspect of the matter always bulked 
large in his mind and was closely associated, as we shall see, with 
his determined advocacy of ship subsidies. It need only be 
added that the plank, as reproduced herewith, was accepted by 
the Committee on Resolutions of the Convention practically 
intact. The word "legitimacy" became "propriety," and the 
first sentence was made coordinate with the second instead of 
dependent upon it. 










rfJ5***J^ 




^^t-ft^ 










^-^-^-•'•^^'Vt 







'^>VC<' 



C-" 



acsimfle of the " Trust " Blank in the Republican Platform of 1900 in Mr. Hanna's 

Handwriting. 



308 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

With its leading candidates and its platform practically dic- 
tated, the Convention of 1900 might have been expected to be 
too harmonious for anything but words. The only task which 
circumstances had left to the discretion of the delegates was the 
nomination for Vice-President; and American parties and par- 
tisan conventions have usually refused to get interested in the 
candidate for that contingently important office. After the 
question of the Presidential candidate is settled, the delegates 
are so anxious to go home that they allow a Vice-Presidential 
candidate to be imposed upon them by the head of the ticket. 
The more conspicuous and able party leaders do not want the 
office, which has a way of ending the political career of the man 
who wins it. The successful candidate is usually some subordi- 
nate leader who is supposed to be able to carry an important 
state, remote from the residence of the Presidential candidate. 

In 1900, however, this ordinarily neglected task was the only 
aspect of the Convention's work in which the delegates had a 
chance to get interested. They seized it with avidity, and soon 
became almost as much excited over their choice for the minor 
as they usually were for the major office. The influence of the 
administration was not being exerted in favor of any candidate. 
Both Mr. McKinley and Mr. Hamia had their preferences, but 
their favorite candidates spumed the office. Mr. McKinley's 
choice. Senator Allison, was satisfied with his seat and his posi- 
tion in the Senate. Mr. Hanna's choice, Mr. Cornelius N. Bliss, 
to which the President would have cordially assented, refused 
to permit the use of his name. Mr. Bliss had been for about a 
year and a half Secretary of Interior in Mr. McKinley's Cabinet. 
During the period of their joint official service in Washington, 
the warm friendship between him and Mr. Hanna, which had 
started during the campaign of '96, became still more affection- 
ately intimate. They lived together for a while during the: 
summer of '98, and both used subsequently to refer to these 
months as peculiarly pleasant — in spite of the trying nature of I 
their official duties. It was natural, consequently, that after r 
yMr. Hobart's death, Mr, Hanna should have wished to put I 
/ Mr. Bliss in his place. 

If Mr. Bliss had consented to allow the use of his name, Mr. 
Hanna would have planned his nomination months in advance, 



i 



THE CONVENTION OF 1900 309 

and might well have succeeded. The latter never had any 
doubt about his ability to bring about the nomination of any 
really available candidate. But Mr. Bliss refused. Even after 
the Convention had assembled, Mr. Hanna continued to urge 
Mr. Bliss, who was a delegate from New York, to consent. For 
a moment there was some hesitation. Mr. Bliss was so far per- 
suaded that he even yielded — provided Mr. Hanna would dis- 
arm the opposition of Mrs. Bliss. But Mr. Hanna threw up his 
hands at the proviso. He had already incurred Mrs. Bliss's 
disfavor by persuading her husband to accept a Cabinet office, 
and he declined to travel any farther along that road. 

With Senator Allison and Mr. Bliss eliminated there was no 
candidate whom either the President or Mr. Hanna very much 
preferred. The other men frequently mentioned for the place 
were Governor Roosevelt, Jonathan Dolliver, then a Congress- 
man from Iowa, ex-Secretary of the Navy, John D. Long, Charles 
M. Fairbanks of Indiana and Timothy Woodruff, a New 
York politician. Mr. Roosevelt, who was much the most promi- 
nent of these candidates, was being proposed for the office very 
much against his own will, while at the other end of the scale 
was Mr. Woodruff, who was enthusiastically in favor of his own 
selection. 

Mr. Roosevelt's candidacy was being assiduously promoted 
by Senator Thomas C. Piatt, the ''Boss" of New York. The 
Governor during his term of office had exhibited a good deal of 
undesirable independence in respect both to the legislation 
which he favored and to his appointments. He had come into 
sharp collision with Senator Piatt and the New York Republican 
machine over several matters, particularly the question of the 
handling of the insurance department and the Franchise Tax 
Bill. He achieved his object in having the bill passed in proper 
shape, but only at the cost of serious trouble with the organiza- 
tion. After its passage Mr. Roosevelt soon found that the 
regular leaders were more or less covertly hostile to him and 
were anxious to prevent his renomination. They feared he 
might succeed, in spite of their opposition, and they hit upon the 
plan of getting rid of him by bringing about his nomination for 
Vice-President. Before the Convention assembled, Mr. Roose- 
f velt had no idea that the Vice-Presidential candidacy was any- 



310 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

thing but a device contrived by Senator Piatt and the machine 
-to end his career as Governor, and announced that he would not 
accept the nomination. He went to the Convention primarily 
for the purpose of preventing it. 

Both Mr. McKinley and Mr. Hanna were as much opposed 
to Mr. Roosevelt's candidacy as was the candidate himself. 
When the latter arrived in Philadelphia, he had no definite plans, 
except to nominate Mr. Bliss (if possible), and to prevent the 
nomination of Mr. Roosevelt. The Colonel of Rough Riders, 
after his return from Cuba, had been free in his private criticism 
of the conduct of the war, and his whole attitude towards the 
war had been different from that of the administration. Al- 
though he had always behaved as a loyal Republican, he was 
regarded as erratic and "unsafe," — as, indeed, he undoubtedly 
was from the point of view of an administration of the affairs 
of the country chiefly in the interest of business. The Vice- 
Presidency might have seemed to be one of the safest offices in 
the government in which to confine an unsafe political leader; 
but Mr. Hanna had gone to Philadelphia with the intention of 
engineering the nomination of a Vice-Presidential candidate who 
would make from his point of view a thoroughly good President. 
It was characteristic of him to provide, if possible, in advance 
against the inconvenient contingency of having his Harrison 
succeeded by a Tyler. 

There is a story to the effect that when Mr. Timothy Wood- 
ruff was urging upon Mr. Hanna his personal advantages as a 
Vice-Presidential candidate, the latter asked him : — 

"Do you think that the Convention would nominate you for 
the Presidency?" Mr. Woodruff allowed that the Convention 
would not. "Then," said Mr. Hanna, "don't you know that 
there is only one life between the Presidency and the Vice-Presi- 
dency and that it would be foolhardy to nominate a man for 
Vice-President who would not be big enough to be President?" 
What Mr. Woodruff replied, the chronicle sayeth not; but he 
might have retorted that the nomination of politicians for the 
Vice-Presidency who were not fit to be President was one of the 
most ancient and best established of American political tradi- 
tions, and that from any such point of view his qualifications 
were unimpeachable. He might have urged, also, that his own re- 



THE CONVENTION OF 1900 311 

moval to Washington, unlike that of Mr. Roosevelt, would have 
been a benefit to the cause of good government in New York. 

Although Mr. Hanna was emphatically opposed to Mr, 
Roosevelt's nomination, neither he nor, of course, the President 
had given any public expression to his opposition. Nor had he 
taken any precautions to prevent it. He did not think such 
precautions necessary. Inasmuch as Mr. Roosevelt himself 
did not want it, and as the New York delegation was divided 
between Mr. Woodruff and the Governor, the prospects of such 
a nomination did not look serious. Mr. Roosevelt arrived in 
Philadelphia on Saturday, June 16, and in an interview shortly 
thereafter with Mr. Hanna, he repudiated so decisively the idea 
of becoming a candidate that Mr. Hanna gave out a statement 
in reference to the matter. He declared himself opposed to 
Mr. Roosevelt's nomination on the ground that the candidacy 
should not be forced on any man. He undoubtedly expected 
that this declaration would settle this matter. 'The Conven- 
tion had shown no disposition to question his leadership, and 
preferences for Vice-Presidential candidates never had much 
vitality. With Mr. Roosevelt out of the way the nomination 
seemed to lie between Jonathan Dolliver and John D. Long, 
with the chances in the former's favor. 

What followed can best be narrated in Mr. Roosevelt's own 
words : — 

"Immediately on reaching Philadelphia, I was made aware 
that there was a very strong movement outside of the State of 
New York in favor of my nomination, the motive of these men 
outside of New York being the exact reverse of the motives of 
the politicians from New York ; for the men outside New York 
wished me nominated because they believed in me and wished me 
to continue in public life. However, it was some little time 
before I attached full weight to this outside movement, my 
attention being absorbed by the effort within the New York 
delegation to force me as a candidate. Senator Piatt had come 
on, and personally and through his lieutenants was assuming 
control of the delegation, and they were insisting that I would 
have to be nominated, and that New York would insist upon 
presenting my name. I insisted that I would not be nominated, 
and that I would not permit New York to present my name. 



312 MAKCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

Finally a caucus of the New York delegates was called, and it 
was while this caucus was being held that I had my interview 
with Senator Piatt. As soon as the caucus came together it 
became evident that a concerted effort would be made to force 
me into the acceptance of the nomination, without regard to my 
wishes. I taxed the leaders of the movement with desiring 
merely to get me out of the Governorship — for my term as Gov- 
ernor would end the following January, and the Convention to 
nominate a Governor would be held some three months after the 
Presidential Convention which we were then attending. Some 
of those I thus taxed with wishing to eliminate me from the 
Governorship acknowledged the fact with a laugh ; others 
denied it. I told them that I would not permit them to nomi- 
nate me for Vice-President, that I would not only make the 
fight in the caucus, but also if necessary in the Convention, and 
explain fully what I believed their purpose was ; and that most 
assuredly after such public explanation by me, it would be 
impossible for them to nominate me. 

"This caused a good deal of commotion, and in a short while 
one of Mr. Piatt's lieutenants came to me and stated that the 
Senator wished to see me in his room, to which he was confined 
because of an accident with which he had met. I accordingly 
went upstairs and saw him. He told me that it had been de- 
cided that I was to be nominated for Vice-President, and that 
they could not accept any refusal, and that I would have to 
yield. I answered that I was sorry to be disagreeable, but that 
I regarded the movement as one to get me out of the Governorship 
for reasons which were not of a personal but of a public character; 
that is, for reasons connected with the principles in which I so 
heartily believed, and that I would not and could not consent 
to go back on those principles, and so I would refuse to accept 
the nomination for Vice-President. Senator Piatt again said 
that I would have to accept. I again told him that I would not. 
He then said to me that if I did not accept, I would be beaten for 
the nomination for Governor, and some one else nominated for 
Governor in my place. I answered in effect that this was a 
threat, which simply rendered it impossible for me to accept, 
that if there was to be war there would be war, and that that 
was all there was to it ; and I bowed and left the room. 



THE CONVENTION OF 1900 313 

"As I went downstairs to the room in which the New York 
delegates were gathered, I made up my mind that the wise 
course was to take the aggressive at once, and with all possible 
force. Accordingly as soon as I entered the room, I announced 
to half a dozen men that I had just had a conversation with 
Senator Piatt ; that Senator Piatt had informed me that I must 
take the nomination for the Vice-Presidency and that if I did 
not I would not be nominated for Governor ; that this threat 
rendered it impossible for me to consider accepting the Vice- 
Presidency; that I intended to announce immediately that I 
was a candidate for Governor and would fight for the nomina- 
tion, and that every man who voted for my nomination for Vice- 
President must do so with the understanding that I would see 
that the people in their turn understood that he was thus voting 
at the direction of Mr. Piatt, in order to remove me from the 
Governorship; that I should make this statement instantly in 
the full meeting, that I would make it to the newspapers after- 
wards, and that I would fight for the nomination on this issue. 
The minute that I took this position the whole effort to bring 
pressure upon me collapsed. There was great confusion, and 
one of Senator Piatt's lieutenants came to me and begged me 
not to say anything for a minute or two until he could communi- 
cate with the Senator, whom he was certain must have been 
misunderstood by me. I laughed and said that I had very 
clearly understood him, but that of course I would wait for a 
few minutes until he could be communicated with. In three 
or four minutes this gentleman came downstairs, saying that 
the Senator wished to see me again, that he was very sorry he 
had spoken in a way that caused me to misunderstand him, that 
he was under the influence of opiate to reduce the pain caused 
by the injuries he had received, and that he supposed he had 
expressed himself badly in consequence. Accordingly I went 
upstairs, and Mr. Piatt substantially repeated this explanation 
to me, saying that he was sorry if he had shown temper or ex- 
pressed himself badly, and that of course in view of my feeling 
the effort to nominate me for Vice-President would be aban- 
doned, and that he wished me to be assured that he and all his 
friends would favor my renomination as Governor. I thanked 
him, bowed, and went downstairs. The delegates took their 



314 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

cue at once. No further effort was made to nominate me for 
the Vice-Presidency at this New York caucus and they voted 
to present the name of Mr. Woodruff." 

The caucus of the New Yorkers had been held on Tuesday 
night, June 19. In the papers on Wednesday morning, every 
attempt was again made to create the impression that the 
Roosevelt candidacy was dead. An account of the decision of 
the New York delegation was telegraphed all over the country. 
The fact was flourished that Mr. Roosevelt was advising his 
friends to vote for ex-Secretary John D. Long ; and the persist- 
ent efforts to nominate the Governor against his will were 
ascribed to the desire of the "Bosses" of New York and Pemi- 
sylvania to "run" the Convention and embarrass the adminis- 
tration. Mr. Hanna himself was at the bottom of these re- 
newed efforts to get Mr. Roosevelt out of the way; but this 
time they had the appearance of being forced. The corre- 
spondents pointed out that the matter could not be considered 
settled, until Mr. Roosevelt had declared definitely that he 
would refuse absolutely to accept the nomination. No such 
declaration had been made. In a statement published in the 
press on Tuesday morning, he had said merely that in his opin- 
ion he could help the national ticket most in case he were re- 
nominated for Governor ; and he begged his friends to respect 
his wishes. 

If the only forces working in favor of Mr. Roosevelt's nomina- 
tion had been Senator Piatt's wish to transplant such an "er- 
ratic" but thrifty political plant out of the green valley of New 
York state politics and the purpose of the Quay machine, which 
had formally indorsed the Roosevelt candidacy, to embarrass 
the administration, Mr. Roosevelt would never have received 
the nomination, and the administration, represented by Mr. 
Hanna, would not have been in the least embarrassed. But the 
difficulty was that the Roosevelt candidacy had developed a 
spontaneous strength which astounded the candidate himself 
and really did embarrass Mr. Hanna. Before the meeting of 
the Convention no one had suspected either the extent or vigor 
of the demand for Mr. Roosevelt's nomination. A large pro- 
portion of the Republican voters had willed that his name 
should be on the ticket; and no amount of discouragement 



THE CONVENTION OF 1900 315 

either from the candidate or from the National Committee 
could break their will. The delegations from certain Western 
states insisted that they would nominate him in spite of any 
opposition from any quarter. They would not listen even to an 
absolute refusal on the part of the candidate himself to accept 
the nomination. 

No political leader in a democracy can trifle with a plain 
popular mandate — no matter how inconvenient its consequences 
may be. ^vMr, Roosevelt was sincere in his wish to avoid the 
nomination. He had every apparent personal interest in desir- 
ing to continue his career as Governor in New York. But he 
was staggered by the insistence of the sentiment among the 
delegates. For that reason he left the door slightly ajar, and 
the majority of the Convention pushed him through the opening. 
He and Mr. Hanna, either alone or together, could have beaten 
"Boss" Piatt; but they could not and did not dare to disobey 
their common master. Such an unequivocal and enthusiastic 
expression of a popular preference both deserved and com- 
manded acquiescence, and in acquiescing Mr. Roosevelt had 
this consolation. If from one point of view his transfer to the 
Vice-Presidency looked like the incarceration of a very promis- 
ing political career in a cold storage box, from another point of 
view such a flattering evidence of the Sovereign's favor looked 
like the finger of Destiny. 

Mr. Hanna, on the other hand, had no such consolation. 
Again and again he had thought and announced that the Roose- 
velt candidacy was dead. But on Wednesday morning, after 
its technical murder at the hands of the New York state delega- 
tion the night before, it proved to be more alive than ever. Mr. 
Hanna was taken by surprise, but he was not discouraged. He 
had come to the Convention with the intention of securing a 
Vice-Presidential candidate who in his opinion could be de- 
pended upon to continue Mr. McKinley's work, and he would 
not yield his purpose. He continued for some time further to 
use his own influence and the credit of the administration in an 
effort to stem the tide. He was prepared, if necessary, to carry 
the fight to the floor of the Convention. By so doing he was 
taking a grave risk, for, even had he succeeded, his success would 
have awakened deep resentment. Already there was a growing 



316 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

undertone of discontent and criticism, because the general prefer- 
ence for Mr. Roosevelt was meeting with organized opposition — 
emanating from the representative of the administration at the 
Convention. 

According to the veracious Mr. Piatt, it was he who per- 
suaded Mr. Hanna to abandon his opposition. He tells of a 
conference between the two on Tuesday night, while the caucus 
of the New York delegation was in session, which ended in Mr. 
Hanna's conversion and the latter's promise ''that night^' to 
issue a statement approving Mr. Roosevelt as nominee. This 
account runs on about the same level of accuracy with Mr. 
Piatt's other contributions to history. Mr. Hanna's statement 
was not given out on Tuesday night. On Wednesday he was 
systematically collecting all his own forces and those of the 
administration for the purpose of preventing the Governor's 
nomination. What the result would have been, had he been 
allowed to continue the fight, is doubtful ; but his own friends 
and those of Mr. McKinley feared the outcome. They were as 
much afraid of the resentment, which would have been caused 
by an administration victory, as they were by the loss of prestige, 
which would have resulted from defeat. 

A friend of both the President and Mr. Hanna's, Mr. Charles G. 
Dawes of Illinois, who understood the risk of further opposition, 
expostulated with Mr. Hanna. He was told that Mr. Hanna 
was only carrying out the President's wishes. Thereupon he 
called up Mr. McKinley on the long distance telephone, explained 
the situation to the President at length and the risk of commit- 
ting the administration to any uncompromising opposition to the 
general sentiment of the Convention. He was instructed by 
Mr. McKinley to ask Mr. Hanna to discontinue all opposition. 
As soon as Mr. Hanna was informed of the President's wishes 
he immediately yielded — not without some chagrin and bitter- 
ness of spirit, but with the loyalty which he always exhibited 
and upon which the President confidently counted. 

It was on Wednesday evening that Mr. Hanna learned of the 
President's wishes, and about the same time he was informed 
that the unwilling candidate had also signified his consent. 
Late that night, after many consultations with leaders from all 
over the country, Mr. Hanna gave out the following statement : 



THE CONVENTION OF 1900 317 

"The administration has had no candidate for Vice-President. 
It has not been for or against any candidate. It has desired 
that the Convention should make the candidate and that has 
been my position throughout. It has been a free field for all. 
Under these circumstances several eminent Republicans have 
been proposed, all of them distinguished men with many friends. 
I may now say on behalf of all of these candidates, and I except 
no one, I have within the last twelve hours been asked to give 
my advice. After consulting with as many delegates as possible 
in the time at my disposal I have concluded to accept the re- 
sponsibility involved in this request. In the present situation, 
with the strong and earnest sentiment of the delegates from all 
parts of the country for Governor Roosevelt, and since President 
McKinley is to be nominated without a dissenting voice, it is 
my judgment that Governor Roosevelt should be nominated 
with the same unanimity." This proclamation, which was very 
ingenious, but not wholly candid, did of course settle the matter. 
Mr. Hanna's "advice" was accepted. No other name was 
presented to the Convention for Vice-Presidential candidate ; 
but curiously enough it was not presented by the candidate's 
own state. The effective demand for Mr. Roosevelt's nomina- 
tion had come from the West, and to Iowa, as the only Western 
state which had favored a serious local candidate, was accorded 
the honor of placing Mr. Roosevelt's name before the Conven-' 
tion. Colonel Lafayette Young made the speech accompanying 
the nomination, and Mr. Roosevelt received 925 votes out of 
926 — one delegate from New York, presimiably the candidate 
himself, having failed to vote. 

The dislike which President McKinley and Mr. Hanna felt 
towards Mr. Roosevelt as Vice-Presidential nominee was nat- 
ural, but the immediate effect of the nomination was as fortu- 
nate for them as its ultimate effects were for Mr. Roosevelt. 
The Republican ticket was decidedly strengthened by the 
presence on it of one who at that time was, more than any other 
single man, the hero of the Cuban war. The facts that both the 
President and Mr. Hanna had been opposed to the war, that 
they had been reluctant to accept its consequences, and that in 
their political system the most important object of political 
policy was the encouragement of business, — all these facts made 



318 MAKCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

them underestimate the effect of the war on public opinion. It 
was the popularity of the war in the West which had saved 
them in the Congressional election of the fall of 1898 ; and it was 
the same element in public opinion which at the Philadelphia 
Convention had demanded the nomination of the Colonel of 
Rough Riders. Thus Mr. Roosevelt added a kind of strength 
to the ticket which it could not have obtained from the success 
of any alternative candidate. 

That the promised revival of business had taken place during 
Mr. McKinley's administration constituted unquestionably the 
President's best claim for reelection. If the country had not 
become relatively prosperous, the Republicans would surely 
have been defeated. But just in proportion as prosperity re- 
turned, it lost some of its value as a political issue. A hungry 
man can think of nothing but food, but when the hunger is 
satisfied he needs other interests. The war had aroused na- 
tional feeling and had made the people more alive to their joint 
national interest. It had given to the American people a new 
sense of the meaning of American nationality and of the scope 
of American national purposes. All these vague emotions and 
ideas demanded some medium of expression. If the Republi- 
can ticket had not provided them with a candidate who appealed, 
as Mr. Roosevelt did, to their patriotic imagination and aspira- 
tions, it would have failed wholly to satisfy a widespread and 
vital element in public opinion. Against their own will Mr. 
McKinley and Mr. Hanna had called to their support the one 
man who could most effectively supplement their own strength 
with the American people — the one man who could make the 
ticket represent the nationalism of the future as well as that of 
the past and of the present. 



CHAPTER XXI 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1900 



In spite of the threatened conflict over the nomination for 
Vice-President, the Convention of 1900 was, from the point of 
view of party harmony and efficiency, one of the most successful 
ever held by the RepubHcans. It named a ticket which was as 
capable of vigorous aggression as it was impregnable on the 
defence. The whole party was confident of success and eager to 
contribute to it. Never had the Republicans been more effi- 
ciently organized and more competently led. The leaders had 
the confidence of the army. The army was not divided against 
itself. They felt that they represented the better part of the 
nation and that in their persons the nation was marching on to 
new industrial conquests and towards new political horizons. 

Mr. McKinley was apparently as much pleased with the final 
result and the means whereby it had been reached as was 
the average Republican. As soon as the Convention was over, 
he wrote from Washington to Mr. Hanna, who had gone to 
Cleveland, the following letter : — 

"Dear Senator: — 

"I am greatly pleased with the work of the Convention. 
You have added another claim to leadership and public con- 
fidence. All comers from the Convention commend you and 
all accord you the courage and sagacity of true leadership. 

"I am delighted that you have accepted the Chairmanship 
of the National Committee. It is a great task and will be to 
you a great sacrifice. Before you arrange for the Director of the 
Speaking Bureau, I will be glad to talk with you. 

"Hoping you will get some much needed rest and find your 
family well, believe me, 

" Your true friend, 

"William McKinley." 
319 



320 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

It had already been announced that^Mr. Hanna would 
again head the National Committee. Everybody had assumed, 
as a matter of course, that he would do so. His selection 
for the place was only a proper recognition of his service to 
the administration and the party and his proved ability as a 
campaign manager. Yet there was a period of some weeks 
previous to the meeting of the Convention, during which Mr. 
Hanna himself began to suspect and fear that he would not be 
selected. The naming of the Chairman was the practical 
prerogative of the head of the ticket; and Mr. McKinley's 
behavior was at least suspicious. 

Early in the spring of 1900 Mr. Hanna began complaining to 
certain of his intimate associates that Mr. McKinley had said 
nothing to him about managing the coming campaign. Time 
passed and still nothing was said. Mr. Hanna became very 
much worried. The moment arrived when preparations ought 
to be made and when it was natural that the matter should be 
settled. The worry seems to have had a damaging effect on his 
health. Late in April he had an attack of heart failure, while 
writing a note in his office, and fainted away. He recovered 
almost immediately and even went that same night to the 
theatre; but his intimates, who knew his physical habits and 
realized how distressed he was, attributed the attack to the 
anxiety caused by the President's persistent silence. If at that 
particular juncture Mr. Hanna had been superseded as Chairman 
of the National Committee, one of the most essential supports 
of his personal prestige and power would have been removed. 
It would have meant that he no longer retained the friend- 
ship and confidence of the President. Fortunately, however, his 
suspense was not further prolonged. A little later Mr. Hanna 
appeared at his office one morning with every trace of anxiety 
vanished from his face and in the highest spirits. Mr. McKin- 
ley had the night before asked him to accept the office and its 
work, and had insisted upon his immediate and unqualified 
consent. 

Considering the relations between the two men, one's natu- 
ral suspicion would be that Mr. Hanna's anxiety was due to 
over-sensitiveness, and that Mr. McKinley had never even con- 
sidered the selection of another Chairman. But from remarks 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1900 321 

which Mr. McKinley made to other people, it is probable that 
the President really was hesitating. How serious the hesitation 
was, and upon precisely what grounds it was based, remains 
obscure ; but unquestionably at this period a certain alteration 
was taking place in the relationship between the two men. The 
President's delay in asking Mr. Haima to serve as Chairman, and 
Mr. Hanna's consequent anxiety, was only the first of a series of 
incidents which indicated such a change. The incidents will 
all be told franldy, because they are part of the true story of 
jMr. Hanna's life. They indicate not any estrangement, but 
simply the stress under which an old and fast friendship was 
adapting itself to new conditions. The new condition was Mr. 
Hanna's increasing personal power as a Congressional and as a 
popular leader. This power was assuming such formidable 
dimensions that the President might well begin to wonder how 
his own prestige was beginning to look by comparison. But in 
spite of the strain, the testimony is unanimous that at the end 
of the campaign the friendship of the two men remained sub- 
stantially unimpaired. 

Whatever the grounds of the President's hesitation, he really 
did not have a practicable alternative. No other man had a 
tithe of the quaUfications possessed by Mr. Hanna for the 
office of Chairman. He could have claimed it, merely because 
of his ability as a campaign manager, even though as a political 
leader he was less popular than was actually the case. Mr. 
Hanna alone had in his mind a complete and accurate map of the 
political landscape. He knew just what the situation was in 
the different parts of the country, and just what states needed 
and would repaj' the most arduous efforts for their retention or 
conquest. During the four years that had elapsed since the 
previous campaign he had been studjong the conditions and 
opportunities which would be presented in 1900. Responsibil- 
ity for the work could not have been shifted without confusion, 
cross purposes and loss of efficiency. 

Mr. Hanna's personal relation to the work in 1900 was very 
much the same as it had been four years earlier. He was the 
real supervisor and director of the whole campaign. Its man- 
agement was absolutely his. Of course, he constantly consulted 
the President and other leaders ; but, as in the case of any other 



322 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

efficient general, he acted often^on his own initiative and his own 
personal responsibility. His private secretary, Mr. Elmer 
Dover, states that he laid out the actual work of a campaign 
without taking any one into his confidence. His plan was, as 
in 1896, based on what he believed to be the general condition 
of public opinion throughout the Union, from which he inferred 
how much work needed to be done, where it should be placed 
and what its character ought to be. As in 1896, also, the work 
was planned to be cumulative in its effect, culminating a few 
days before the election in an outburst of common conviction 
and enthusiasm. Early in the campaign even his ultimate 
associates were puzzled as to his reasons for making certain 
moves, but their relation to the general plan was gradually un- 
folded. Every part of the work was well organized, and every 
part of the organization was thoroughly energized. 

Of course his task was much less onerous than it had been in 
1896. He did not have an uphill fight on his hands, or an 
almost country-wide campaign of popular instruction. He did 
not employ as many speakers, nor did he need to distribute as 
much literature. It is true that with his usual habit of making 
a sure thing doubly sure, he canvassed the country much more 
thoroughly than it ever had been canvassed before 1896. But 
with every intention in the world of leaving nothing undone 
which could possibly contribute to Republican success, there 
was very much less to do. In 1900, as in the campaigns pre- 
vious to 1896, certain results in many parts of the coimtry could 
be taken for granted. The hard canvassing could be concen- 
trated on a smaller area of peculiar strategic importance. To 
continue the military analogy, he was operating in a familiar 
and a friendly country, instead of in a country which was hos- 
tile and comparatively unexplored. 

He needed, consequently, much less money, and what money 
he needed he had much less difficulty in raising. In 1900 the 
total collections were approximately $2,500,000, and not all of 
this sum was used. By this time Mr. Hanna enjoyed the com- 
plete confidence of the big business men of the country. They 
would ^ have placed at the disposal of the Committee just as 
much money as he demanded. If he did not raise any more 
than $2,500,000, it was because the expenditure of a larger sum 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1900 323 

would have contributed nothing to the chances of Republican 
success. 

A significant change had taken place since 1896 in the nature 
and reasons of the support which business men were affording 
to the Republican party. Four years before the responsible busi- 
ness interests of the country, small as well as large, had imited 
m condemning the free coinage of silver, A certain amount of 
the same feeling was carried over into the campaign of 1900. 
The fact that Mr. Bryan was again running on a free-silver 
platform, and the fact that even though elected on the issue of 
anti-Imperialism, he might be able and willing to disestablish 
the gold standard, took the heart out of business during the 
summer of 1900. The issue, however, between financial aberra- 
tion and financial sanity could not be as sharply drawn as it had 
been in 1896, and there was a tendency among smaller business 
men to return to their traditional partisan allegiance. The 
Republicans could not demand the support of business just 
because it was business. They could not assess the National 
Banks all over the country for a certain percentage of their capi- 
tal, because Democratic success would certainly cause acute 
financial disaster. 

During the years between the two campaigns certain classes of 
American business had been radically reorganized. The pro- 
cess of combination had made enormous strides. It had in- 
fected more or less every important department of industry. 
It had, indeed, become the dominant characteristic of American 
industrial practice. But in proportion as this process of com- 
bination increased in volume, it became subject to political 
attack. The large corporations had a doubtful standing under 
state and federal anti-trust acts. They were not overscrupu- 
lous about conducting their business according to fair and legal 
methods. Even those whose standing under existing laws was 
unimpeachable were liable to severe injury from adverse state 
and national legislation. Agitation agauist them and against 
the millionnaires interested in them was becoming both violent 
and widespread. The large business interests could no more 
disregard the sort of denunciation which was more than ever 
hurled at them than the Southern slaveholders could ignore the 
denunciation of the abolitionists ; and its effect in the two cases 



324 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

was very much the same. Big business men became "class 
conscious." They needed pohtical power more than ever for 
the protection of business interests, and the power which may 
have been acquired in self-protection would inevitably be used 
for aggressive purposes. 

In 1900, consequently, it was as much big business as general 
business which began to depend upon the Republican party for 
political protection. The Democratic platform and candidate 
denounced the process of business organization, while the Repub- 
lican candidate and platform recognized that it had a certain 
validity. The whole corporation interest rallied more enthu- 
siastically than ever to the Republicans and opened its purse 
more liberally than ever. To be sure, the distinction between 
big business and general business was not sharply drawn. The 
"prosperity" of which the Republicans boasted and which they 
promised to continue was necessary to both, and the waving of 
the "prosperity" banner was intended to appeal to both. 
Nevertheless, the distinction had become plainer than it was in 
1896, and it had a profound bearing upon the campaign and its 
results. When Mr. McKinley was reelected, big business un- 
doubtedly considered that it had received a license from the 
people to do very much as it pleased. 

Mr. Hanna himself never distinguished sharply between the 
interests of general business and big business. His own busi- 
ness life, except in relation to the street railway company, had 
never become entangled either with the methods or the interests 
characteristic of the larger corporations. He intended to repre- 
sent in politics the essential interest of business itself — irrespec- 
tive of size, location, organization" or character. The "pros- 
perity" which he wished to promote was necessary to all sorts 
of business, and the policy of his opponents was dangerous to 
all sorts of business. Farther than that he did not go. Never- 
theless, the necessities of practical politics brought him closer 
and closer to the representatives of large corporate interests. It 
was much more convenient to get the money needed for an effec- 
tive campaign from them than from a larger number of smaller 
subscribers; and such was particularly the case because the 
smaller business men were much less conscious of their political 
interests and responsibilities than were their more opulent asso- 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1900 325 

ciates. Mr. Hanna wanted, as usual, to accomplish the largest 
and surest results with the utmost economy of time. So in 
1900 he solicited and obtained support from Wall Street more 
explicitly and more exclusively than he had in 1896. 

The explicit recognition on the part of the contributors that 
they were paying for a definite service enabled Mr. Hanna still 
further to systematize the work of collection. The size of a 
contribution from any particular corporation was not left wholly 
to the liberality or discretion of its officers. An attempt was 
made with some measure of success to make every corporation 
pay according to its stake in the general prosperity of the coun- 
try and according to its special interest in a region in which a 
large amount of expensive canvassing had to be done. In case 
an exceptionally opulent corporation or business firm contrib- 
uted decidedly less than was considered its fair proportion, the 
checque might be returned. There are a number of such cases on 
record. On the other hand, an excessively liberal subscription 
might also be sent back in part — assuming, of course, that the 
Committee had collected as much money as it needed, or more. 
The Standard Oil Company contributed $250,000 in 1900, as it 
had done in 1896; and there was, I believe, only one other con- 
tribution received by the Committee of the same size. When 
the election was over the officials of the Company were astounded 
to receive a letter from the Committee containing a check for 
$50,000. They had contributed more than their share, and the 
surplus over and above the necessities of the campaign per- 
mitted the Committee to reimburse them to that extent. Inci- 
dents of this kind naturally increased the confidence of business 
men in the new management of the Republican party. Money 
was not being extorted from them on political pretexts for the 
benefit of political professionals. They were paying a definite 
sum in return for protection against political attacks. Imagine 
the feelings of an ordinary political "Boss" upon learning that 
good sound dollars, which had been received as a political con- 
tribution, were actually being returned to their donors. 

Instances of this kind indicate that Mr. Hanna had intro- 
duced some semblance of business method into a system of 
campaign contributions, which at its worst had fluctuated some- 
where between the extremes of blackmail and bribery. If it 



326 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

had been allowed to develop farther, the system might have 
become a sort of unofficial taxation which a certam class of 
business was obliged to pay, because in one way or another its 
prosperity and even its safety had become dependent upon the 
political management of the country. Even in the extreme form 
which it assumed in 1900, the system itself remained the natural 
outcome of a relation between business and politics, which the 
politico-economic history of the country had conspired to pro- 
duce and for which m a very real sense the mass of the American 
people were just as much responsible as were its beneficiaries and 
perpetrators. Mr. Hanna merely developed it, and removed 
from it, so far as possible, the taint of ordinary corruption. 
Just as the work performed by individuals on behalf of McKin- 
ley's first nomination was never paid for by the promise of par- 
ticular offices, so these contributions were not accepted m return 
for the promise of particular favors. In one instance a cheque 
for $10,000 was returned to a firm of bankers in Wall Street 
because a definite service was by implication demanded in re- 
turn for the contribution. The men whose hands went deepest 
into their pockets understood in general that, if the Republicans 
won, the politics of the country would be managed in the interest 
of business — a consequence which was acknowledged by all the 
Republican speakers and by none so frankly as by Mark Hanna. 
But the more the practice of assessing corporate interests for 
the benefit of one party was reduced to a system, the more im- 
possible it became. The very means which were taken by 
business to protect itself against hostile political agitation was 
bound in the long run to inflame the irritation; and the more 
the irritation became inflamed, the greater theinjury which busi- 
ness would suffer when it eventually lost control. The intimate 
association of business prosperity with illegal and unfair busmess 
practices was bound to make general business, whether innocent 
or guilty, pay the final costs. It is extraordinary that the hard- 
headed men who throughout so many years spent so much 
money for political protection, did not realize that business 
could not permanently succeed in having its own way m politics 
by the use of merely business means and methods — without 
corrupting the country. The prevaihng tendency of politics to 
ignore business in the treatment of business questions is merely 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1900 327 

the inevitable consequence of the tendency of business, when it 
had poHtical power, to exercise it in a manner which ignored the 
fundamental political well-being of a democratic state. 

In making use of his abundant resources in 1900 Mr. Hanna 
was not trying, as he had been in 1896, merely to win the elec- 
tion. He was planning a victory so decisive and so comprehen- 
sive that the Republicans would be unquestionably marked as 
the dominant party. He was planning above all as a matter of 
practical politics to increase the narrow Republican majority in 
the Senate, and thus to obtain a more effective and responsible 
control over legislation than the party had hitherto possessed. 
Where he expected to make the necessary gains was west of the 
Mississippi River. He counted on being able to keep all the 
Eastern States which went Republican in 1896. He was just 
as confident that the Middle West would stick to its allegiance. 
A very general impression existed that Indiana would go Demo- 
cratic, but Mr. Hanna insisted that he could win it. He devoted 
a great deal of time to that state, and he succeeded. But the 
part of the country in which he was most interested was the 
territory west of the Mississippi River, which had formerly been 
Repubhcan, but which since the rise of "Populism" had fallen 
away from the true faith. The results of the Congressional 
elections of 1898 encouraged him to believe that possibly the 
great majority of these states could be carried. In spite of the 
popularity of Bryan in the region and the enthusiastic indorse- 
ment of the Democratic ticket by all the "Populistic" organiza- 
tions, he proposed to concentrate his biggest guns on the Far 
West. He himself spent two-thirds of his time in Chicago and 
only one-third in New York. 

Mr. McKinley, as President, could not play as important a 
part in the campaign as he had in 1896 ; but in his Vice- Presi- 
dential candidate Mr. Hanna had a most effective substitute for 
the vacancy. Mr. Roosevelt was as indefatigable a speaker and 
traveller as Mr. Bryan himself, and the National Committee 
used him to the limit of his endurance. Mr. Hanna was not 
slow to perceive how much assistance Mr. Roosevelt might 
be to him in carrying the Northwestern States. It was the 
Republicans of this region who had been most stirred by the 
war and most clamorous for Mr. Roosevelt's nomination. 



328 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

Hence, while the Vice-Presidential candidate stumped the whole 
country, the emphasis of his canvass was given to the West. 
He was by far the most prominent Republican speaker during 
the campaign, and made a substantial contribution to the de- 
cisive nature of the Republican triumph. More so than any 
other Vice-President who became President, his services gave 
him a certain subordinate claim on the major office. 

In spite of Mr. Hanna's confidence he had some bad moments 
during the campaign. In the beginning there was too much of 
a disposition among the Republicans to take victory for granted ; 
and the manager had to exert himself unnecessarily in order to 
put enough energy into his associates. He was continually 
complaining that not he, but General Apathy, was running the 
campaign. The earlier period of overconfidence was succeeded 
by a slump, particularly among business men. Many of them 
could not dismiss the idea of the dire consequences of Mr. Bryan's 
election, and until the threat was removed the process of busi- 
ness expansion ceased. Trade was slack during the summer and 
fall. Many laborers were out of employment and many dinner- 
pails were empty. Certain Republicans became alarmed at the 
outlook. They wrote to Mr. Hanna, anxiously telling about the 
number of former McKinley votes which were being transferred 
to Bryan, and recommending the most strenuous efforts. But 
Mr, Hanna was never really alarmed. His confidence was based 
on the results of the most careful canvasses made in doubtful 
states. But, of course, he continued to take every precaution. 
He used all his influence among the manufacturers to get them 
to keep as many men as possible on their pay-rolls, until business 
revived after the election. He personally interfered to put an 
end to an embarrassing strike in the anthracite coal regions of 
Pennsylvania. In these and other ways his personal power over 
business was used for the benefit of the ticket. Until the end he 
never fully betrayed how confident he felt. His o^vn tour 
through the Northwest late in October was proof positive that 
he was convinced of Republican victory in the East and the 
Middle West. 

Two of the most important incidents of the campaign from 
Mr, Hanna's personal point of view involved his relations with 
the President, and they must be told in some detail. The first 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1900 329 

concerns a matter of campaign methods. In it Mr. McKinley's 
action was irreproachable, but his manner was such that one can 
hardly blame Mr. Hanna for being annoyed. On August 3, he 
wrote the following letter to the President : — 

"My dear Mr. President: — 

"Chairman Odell has been talking with me with reference to 
two matters which seem to be of very great importance to this 
state. 

"The first is the discrimination against the Brooklyn Navy 
Yard with the consequent laying off of men. This means, in 
addition to the voters themselves, that the tradesmen and others 
over there are inclined to believe that Brooklyn is not getting its 
share of the work. Mr. Odell informs me that the work is being 
sent to the Boston Navy Yard, where there is a lack of men to 
work, while here men are being discharged. He also tells me 
that he has wired you concerning it, and he believes it to be very 
important, as it means the loss of several hundred votes in that 
particular direction. 

"Another matter in which he is interested is the employment 
of men at Iowa Island on the Hudson River, where a man by 
the name of Dugan, Sergeant Dugan, is in charge. He has em- 
ployed Democrats, and in one instance has contemptuously 
thrown aside a letter of recommendation from the member of 
Congress from that district. 

"Very truly yours, 

"M. A. Hanna." 

Some days later Mr. Hanna received the following answer to his 
complaints : — 

PERSONAL 

"Dear Senator Hanna: — 

"Mr. Dawes has just called here and presented to me your 
letter of August 3d addressed to me and one of the same date 
addressed to him. 

"I am sure when you know the facts you will have no reason 
for criticism or complaint. Mr. Odell telegraphed me with 
reference to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. I at once communi- 
cated with Secretary Long and received a most satisfactory 



330 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

reply, a copy of which I enclose. It would not be right, and I 
am sure you would not have the Department employ men at the 
Navy Yard who are not needed, nor would you have work done 
there which could be best done at some other Navy Yard in the 
country. 

"With reference to the letter of Mr. Litchman which you for- 
ward, addressed to you, complaining that an order had been 
issued by the Secretary of the Treasury forbidding travel on the 
part of any of the employees of that Department, unless the order 
for travel is given by the Secretary or Assistant Secretary and 
signed by the same, it would seem to me that this is a wise safe- 
guard. Surely there should be no travel expense paid by the 
Government which is not for the public service, and I am abso- 
lutely and totally opposed to any use of the public money for 
travel or any other expense for party interests; and in this 
sentiment I know you share. 

"As to the conduct of Sergeant Dugan at lona Island on the 
Hudson, referred to, I know nothing about it, but will at once 
make an investigation. If he is using his office for the appoint- 
ment of Democrats for party purposes, he shall be called to ac- 
count. This is a time when every effort will be made to have 
the administration do questionable things. It is a period of 
great temptation, just the sort that will require the highest 
courage to meet and resist. If elected I have to live with the 
administration for four years. I do not want to feel that any 
improper or questionable methods have been employed to reach 
the place, and you must continue, as you have always done, to 
stand against unreasonable exactions, which are so common at 
a time like the present. 

" Very sincerely yours, 
(Signed) "William McKinley." 

After Mr. Hanna had read the foregoing letter he threw it on 
the floor in great irritation ; and since apparently the President's 
position was unassailable, the cause of his irritation needs some 
explanation. In requesting that during a campaign employees of 
the government should not be discharged and the distribution of 
departmental work arranged so as to hurt the canvass of the party 
in power, Mr. Hanna was only doing what previous Chairmen of 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1900 331 

the National Committee had done. Local campaign managers 
were continually making demands of that kind on the Committee, 
and the Committee had been accustomed to pay too much atten- 
tion to them. In the same way it had been customary for cer- 
tain employees of the Treasury department to "travel" in the 
interest of the party in power, although when they travelled 
their expenses, so I am informed, were paid not by the govern- 
ment but by the National Committee. Neither of these prac- 
tices can be defended, and Mr, McKinley in repudiating them 
was contributing, as he did in so many other instances, towards 
the establishment of higher administrative standards. Usu- 
ally the President and Mr. Hanna agreed in not allowing politi- 
cal considerations any more weight than could be helped in the 
conduct of government business ; but pursued as he was by the 
demands of local committees and leaders, and responsible as he 
was for Republican success, Mr. Hanna was incUned to yield 
more frequently than was the President himself. When such 
cases arose, Mr. McKinley's action in refusing indefensible de- 
mands was often admitted by Mr. Hanna to be as much for 
his own protection as for the President's. 

What aroused his irritation in this particular instance was 
not so much the fact of Mr. McKinley's refusal as its form. 
The President's letter had been written with more than usual 
care and had been copied for the White House file, thus becom- 
ing a matter of public record. Mr. Hanna apparently believed 
that the form of the letter and the necessary publicity attached 
to it was prompted in the President by a desire to secure full public 
credit for his action — even if such credit were obtained some- 
what at his friend's expense. As Mr. Hanna put it, the letter 
had been written as much for the President's biography as for 
the immediate occasion. No doubt it is true that Mr. McKin- 
ley throughout his official career kept his biographer a good deal 
in mind ; but it is no less true that he had in the present instance 
a valid reason for giving his refusal official publicity. He 
thereby established an authentic precedent, which might help 
to emancipate both himself and his successors from similar 
demands. 

Later in the campaign another incident occurred which also 
provoked in Mr. Hanna a temporary resentment. Throughout 



332 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

the whole canvass there had been Hvely demands on the part 
of various state committees for Mr. Hanna's services as a stump 
speaker. He had in the past made very few speeches outside of 
Ohio, while at the same time the gradually increasing effect of his 
public personality had stimulated popular curiosity about him. 
Republican audiences wanted to hear him. For a long time he 
refused on the ground that he had too much to do at Commit- 
tee headquarters, but towards the fall he began to yield. He 
spoke once in Chicago about the middle of September, once in 
New York ten days later, and he made an excursion to Indiana 
for the benefit of a Congressional candidate, Mr. C. B. Landis. 
After he had once yielded it became more difficult to refuse 
other requests. The Committees of South Dakota and Nebraska 
were particularly clamorous for a short stumping tour which 
should include their states. After careful consideration Mr. 
Hanna consented to go. 

He had several reasons for consenting to make this particular 
trip. The general situation was well in hand ; in his opinion 
Republican success assured. When in fair health he enjoyed 
stumping, and he looked forward to the tour as an exhilarating 
vacation from the pressure of office detail. His great object 
throughout the campaign had been to make, as we have seen, 
conquests in the strong Bryan states west of the Mississippi; 
and out of all of this district Nebraska and South Dakota were 
the two states in which he was working hardest to make a good 
showing. Inasmuch as Nebraska was Mr. Bryan's own state, 
its conquest would add a peculiar relish to the approaching 
victory. South Dakota was represented in the Senate by 
Richard F. Pettigrew — who had been elected as a Republican 
but had bolted on the silver issue. Mr. Hanna had a special 
reason for wishing to defeat him, because of the personal attack 
which he had made upon Mr. Hanna in the Senate. The local 
committee assured Mr. Hanna that, if only he would go to South 
Dakota, he would do more to defeat Pettigrew than a cohort of 
ordinary speakers. So the tour was arranged. While the proj- 
ect was under consideration, most of Mr. Hanna's friends and 
associates advised against it. Several members of the National 
Committee opposed it warmly, and a number of the closest 
friends outside of the Committee warned him that he was mak- 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1900 333 

ing a mistake. They urged that he was not a professional 
campaigner, that his selection of South Dakota would look like 
the persecution of Mr. Pettigrew by the most powerful man in 
the Republican party and would react in that gentleman's favor, 
and that he had better keep out of the hot and critical fight 
which was being made in those particular states. 

After the decision was made the President himself decided to 
interfere. One day the Postmaster-General, Mr. Charles Emory 
Smith, turned up in Chicago, and sought an interview with Mr. 
Hanna. He began in a somewhat indirect way to develop the 
reasons against the proposed Northwestern tour, dwelling partic- 
ularly on the danger of personal violence. In pressing these 
arguments he claimed to be expressing the opinion of several 
other members of the Cabinet. But his manner implied that 
there was something behind the protest ; and finally Mr. Hanna 
became impatient and asked him point blank, ''The President 
sent you, didn't he ? " When Mr. Smith acknowledged that he 
was an emissary of the President, Mr. Hanna answered (accord- 
ing to an account given immediately after the incident to an 
intimate friend), "Return to Washington and tell the President 
that God hates a coward," — a sentence which has a familiar 
ring, but which the reader may feel confident was not uttered 
for the benefit of Mr. Hanna's biography. 

Mr. Hanna was exasperated at this interference with his per- 
sonal plans and his management of the campaign. He was a 
quick-tempered man, and under the influence of high feeling 
contemplated courses of action which his sober judgment could 
not approve. In his anger he even considered for a moment the 
sending in of his resignation ; but his head was too cool not to 
prevent the commission of such a mistake. The course on 
which he decided was to justify his own judgment by making 
his stumping tour a success. 

His lively resentment is to be explained partly on other than 
obvious grounds. Of course he did not like to have his judg- 
ment impeached in relation to a very important piece of cam- 
paign business. He had decided upon the trip only after con- 
sidering fully and patiently adverse opinions. The decision for 
or against was a matter which lay absolutely within his discre- 
tion as campaign manager. But this formal protest from Wash- 



334 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

ington indicated, not merely distrust of his judgment, but a fear 
of the impression which Mr. Hanna would make on his audiences. 
It indicated a wish to keep his personality out of the campaign 
and away from the people ; and in considering its meaning 
Mr. Hanna could not help connecting it with Mr. McKinley's 
hesitation in asking him to remain at the head of the National 
Committee. He and the President expected opposite results 
from his appearance on the stump. Nowhere in the country 
had Mr. Hanna been more abused than by the ''Populist" ora- 
tors of the Northwest. He proposed by means of the trip to 
counteract the effect of this abuse, whereas the President 
apparently feared that his public appearance would confirm 
rather than confound the diatribes of his enemies. Manifestly 
Mr. Hanna could not submit to such a limitation of the range 
of his political action without implicitly circumscribing his own 
subsequent political career. The question fundamentally was 
whether his appearance so conspicuously on the stump would 
weaken the ticket or contribute to its election. He believed 
that he could both set himself right with the people of the North- 
west and make votes. It hurt and angered him that so many 
leading Republicans, including his old friend the President, held 
to the opposite opinion. He determined to vindicate by the 
results his own judgment, and thereby to increase his own per- 
sonal political prestige. 

The tour was carefully planned. Instead of aiming directly 
for South Dakota and Nebraska, he made dates also in Wiscon- 
sin, Minnesota and Iowa, so that his excursions into the states 
on which he particularly desired to exert influence would not 
look like a special attack on any individual. It was to occupy 
a week all together, of which two days were spent in South 
Dakota. He was accompanied by a considerable suite. His 
own car contained the two speakers who were to assist him on 
the stump, his old campaign comrade, Senator William P. Frye, 
Mr. Victor Dolliver, brother of the late Senator Dolliver of Iowa 
and his private secretary, Mr. Elmer Dover. In the newspaper 
car there were representatives of the Associated Press, the 
Scripps-McRae League, the Minneapolis Journal, the Chi- 
cago Tribune, Times-Herald, Record, Inter-Ocean, and an official 
stenographer. The rest of the train consisted of a diner, a 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1900 335 

reception car for the Committees and a baggage car. An im- 
mense territory was covered in a short time because the train 
was given the right of way over all other trains. 

Senator Frye had prepared two speeches, one of which took 
over an hour to deliver and the other about forty-five minutes. 
Mr. Dolliver also had brought two speeches in his grip, one of 
which was very short for breathless stops and the other an 
elastic harangue which could be stretched from fifteen to thirty 
minutes. Wherever they spoke they made one of their two 
speeches, and after the first day the correspondents ceased to 
report them. Mr. Hanna made seventy-two speeches, varying 
between five minutes and an hour in length, and no two of them 
were alike. 

Throughout the tour Mr. Hanna was extraordinarily and con- 
tinuously successful in exciting popular interest. Two years 
before President McKinley had visited South Dakota, in order 
to welcome some soldiers returning from the Philippines. He 
had drawn the biggest crowds in the history of the state. Mr. 
Hanna's crowds were anywhere from about one and one-half 
times to twice as large as Mr. McKinley's. They were larger 
also than those which had greeted Mr. Roosevelt in the same 
district a few weeks earlier. At seven o'clock in the morning 
the train would stop at a station where one could see no more 
than half a dozen houses, yet there would be a congregation of 
three hundred people to hear Mr. Hanna speak. Farmers in the 
neighborhood had started at midnight and had driven many 
miles, in order to be at the station when the train arrived. At 
Sioux Falls, as well as at the larger places, a crowd three times 
as large as the population of the town gathered at the meeting. 

They were all practically out-of-door meetings, except those 
held during the evenings in the big towns. In South Dakota 
the Populist Legislature had passed a law a few years before 
prohibiting political gatherings which were addressed from the 
tail-end of railway cars. Nor could such assemblies be held 
within two hundred feet of the railway track. The object of 
this discriminating use of the police power was to enable the 
Populist party to campaign on even terms with the Democrats 
and Republicans. The Populists could not afford the political 
luxury of special trains. The consequence was that the way- 



336 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

side meetings in South Dakota were all held at some distance 
from the tracks. The Committee would have a carriage at the 
station and would drive the Senator to a platform, situated at 
a strictly legal distance from the tracks, where a local spell- 
binder would be holding the crowd together. Mr. Hanna 
would speak for a few moments, the whistle would blow, cutting 
short his eloquence, and he would be hurried back to the train. 

The crowds were not only large, they were almost always 
respectful and attentive, and they were often enthusiastic. Of 
course he was interrupted and heckled, but such interruptions 
usually helped him with the audience. A public speaker with 
a bold, familiar and winning personality like Mr. Hanna's can 
always get the better of a heckler — provided he is not irritated 
and disconcerted by the interruption and can make a ready and 
plausible retort. Mr. Hanna always gave his annoyers a fair 
chance, and he was never disconcerted, because he was never 
making a set speech. He had at his disposal a fund of rough 
pleasantry which, while it often reads clumsy and even coarse, 
was received with gusto by his boisterous audiences. 

A few instances may be given of the waj^ he met these emer- 
gencies. In one small town he was introduced by an abject 
chairman as a "Joshua, who, if he wanted to, could command 
the sun to stand still." To allow such a silly adulation to 
stand unnoticed might be dangerous. Mr. Hanna in opening 
his speech said that the only suns he would like to command 
would be the sons of guns of Populists and honest Democrats to 
vote for McKinley. Its author is not to be congratulated on the 
deftness of this sally. It is given not because it was happy, but 
because it was clumsy yet effective. It at once set him right 
before the audience as, not a strange or remote animal, but as 
one of themselves. All the correspondents agree that he there- 
by captured the crowd and kept it with him. He was in a little 
better form at another place, when in beginning his speech, he 
said that he was not a politician. " Mark Hanna not a politi- 
cian! " shouted a scornful voice in the audience. " No, I am not 
a politician, because I don't know how to tell you what is not 
so" — a retort which also proved to be a success and enabled 
him to go ahead with the sympathy of his audience. 

At Auburn in Nebraska, about 2500 people had assembled 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1900 337 

around a platform, from which Mr. Hanna was speaking. The 
platform was a flimsy structure, and it broke down under the 
weight of the men and boys who were trying to clamber on it. 
It looked like a serious business, for some fifty people had fallen 
about six feet and were struggling to free themselves from one 
another and from the debris. "Is Hanna hurt?" "How is 
Hanna?" shouted the spectators; and there was danger of a 
panic. Just then his body emerged from the confused mass ; 
there was a twinkle in his eye and his smile was broader than 
usual. Holding up his hand to command silence, he cried: 
"It's all right. No one is hurt. We were just giving you a 
demonstration of what is going to happen to the Democratic 
party. This must have been a Democratic platform" — at 
which the crowd cheered vociferously. 

Another incident which proved to be popular in the news- 
papers also occurred in Nebraska. Just outside Weeping 
Water a stop was made by the engineer for the purpose of per- 
mitting Mr. Hanna to shave before his night meeting in Omaha. 
The photographer of the Omaha Bee took advantage of the 
opportunity to secure a picture of Senator Hanna and his party. 
Just as the Senator was about to be photographed alone, the 
engineer, grimy with coal and grease, sauntered up to see what 
was going on. "Here, you are just the man I want," said Mr. 
Hanna, grasping the engineer by the arm and drawing him into 
the field of the lens. " We are both engineers, I run the Republi- 
can party and you run me." "Well! I guess I've got you faded 
then, Senator," said the engineer, with a grin, as the camera 
clicked. The picture of the "two engineers" was reproduced 
extensively at the time and certainly enabled a good many peo- 
ple to understand one of them somewhat better. 

Throughout the whole of the tour he never once mentioned 
Senator Pettigrew's name in public. But although he was dis- 
creet enough to avoid a personal attack on the man against 
whom he had a personal grudge, he was far from avoiding all 
personalities. He could not do so, because his own personality 
was being made an issue, and because the object of the trip was 
to convert precisely that personal issue into a source of strength 
to the ticket. That he succeeded is indicated by the following 
curious fact. One of the peculiarities of the tour was the large 



338 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

number of school children who turned out to see and hear him. 
At Winside in Nebraska this was especially the case, in spite of 
an immense placard nailed to a telegraph pole, which screamed 
an awful warning : — 

POPULIST FARMERS, 

BEWARE ! ! ! 

Chain Your Children to Yourselves 

OR 

Put them Under the Bed. 
MARK HANNA IS IN TOWN 

In his speech at Lincoln, Nebraska, he turned on Mr. Bryan. 
The Democratic candidate had recently declared that the 
Republicans were raising an enormous corruption fund, with 
which they were going to intimidate laboring men, bribe election 
judges and purchase votes. This is the way in which Mr. 
Hanna dealt with the charge. He said: — 

" In regard to that statement, which I have just read, I want to hurl 
it back in his teeth and tell him it is as false as hell. [Applause.] When 
it comes to personalities I am willing to stand before the American 
people on my record as a business man. I have been in business forty 
years. I employ GOOO men, pay the highest wages, treat the men like 
men and they all respect me. [Great applause.] When Bryan or 
any other man charges me in that way — and I am willing to ap- 
propriate it all as Chairman of the board of managers of the Republican 
campaign — I promise as I said to hurl it back and denounce him as a 
demagog in his own town. [Great applause.] [Continued cheering.] 
[Voice : 'Hit him again. '] " 

He went on to say : — 

"In 1897, when I had a Uttle singing school down in Ohio, 
Bryan came down there to help Johnnie McLean defeat me for 
the Senate. He went across the state, back and forth from one end to 
the other and through the mining districts, and he told the people of 
Ohio what a bad man I was. He told the men working in the mines 
that Hanna was a labor crusher. He forgot that they knew that I was 
born and always Uved in that state, and that my record with organized 
labor was better than any other man's in that state [applause], because 
I was the first employer that I know of in the state of Ohio that ever 
recognized and treated with organized labor. I have done it from that 
day to this . [Applause . ] 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1900 339 

" Now I am entitled to tell another story of justification in Mr. 
Bryan's town. [Voice: 'Tell it to them.'] At the close of that cam- 
paign I was at Cincinnati. The meeting was in the great music 
hall as full as this theatre from top to bottom, — a very intelli- 
gent and appreciative audience, I thought, right under the shadow 
of the Cincinnati Inquirer, who had lied like a thief about me every 
day in the week and kept that Davenport cartoon on the front page 
of its paper. I was pictured as a bogie man. That was intended to 
frighten the workingmen away from supporting the members of the 
legislature that they knew would vote to send me back to the Senate. 
Bryan had done his work and left the state, and that was the last night 
in the campaign, and I thought I would make a little statement there 
for the benefit of those fellows. So I said: 'Now, gentlemen, this 
campaign is over. As far as my appearance before the public is concerned 
it is closed, but I want to make one proposition not only to the people 
of Ohio, but to the people of the United States. Mr. Bryan, who once 
aspired to be President of the United States, came to Ohio this fall to 
tell the people in my own state, who had known me since I was a boy, 
that I was a bad, wicked man, and that I was a labor crusher, which was 
worse than all. Now I want to make this proposition. If any man who 
ever worked for me in any capacity can truthfully say that I have ever 
knowingly done him a wrong or an injustice ; that I have failed to pay 
the highest rate of wages ; that I have ever refused to receive in my 
presence either individually or by committee any man in my employ, 
whether members of the union or not ; that I have ever questioned a 
man when employing him whether he belonged to a union or not, or 
discharged him because he belonged to an organization or union ; if 
that can be brought to me and proved, I will resign as Senator to- 
morrow . ' [Applause . ] " 

The speeches made by Mr. Hanna during this Northwestern 
trip constituted a serious and an honest contribution to a dis- 
cussion of the issues of the campaign. Taken as a whole they 
contain the best and most comprehensive statement which he 
ever made of his own personal attitude towards the political and 
economic problems of the day. He addressed his audiences in 
a tone of earnest conviction, and he argued his case before them 
candidly and instructively. He had none of the tricks of the 
ordinary stump speaker, and none of the insincerity and obliq- 
uity of the ordinary partisan advocate. He reasoned with his 
hearers and tried to persuade them to vote the Republican 



340 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

ticket on what seemed to him absolutely sufficient grounds. 
When he told one audience that he was not a politician, because 
he did not know how to tell them what was not so, he was speak- 
ing the truth. His hearers went away with the impression that 
he was speaking the truth ; and this fact, taken together with 
his big, imposing, yet engaging personality, accounts for his 
success. 

That the tour was a success from every point of view, all 
accounts are agreed. The results vindicated his judgment. 
The campaign in the Northwest obtained as a consequence a 
greatly increased momentum, which did much to excite con- 
tagious confidence and enthusiasm among the Republicans in 
the neighboring states. By his personal appearance on the 
stump he had really helped the ticket, and he had placed his 
own personality in a much more favorable light among an im- 
portant section of the American people. Indeed, this trip, more 
than any other single cause, helped to make Mr. Hanna person- 
ally popular throughout the West, just as his first stumping tour 
in Ohio had made him personally popular in his OAvn state. As 
soon as he became known, the virulence and malignity with 
which he had been abused reacted in his favor. When he ap- 
peared on the platform, the crowd, instead of seeing a monster, 
found him to be just the kind of a man whom Americans best 
understand and most heartily like. He was not separated from 
them by differences of standards and tastes or by any intellect- 
ual or professional sophistication. The roughness of much of 
his public speaking, and its lack of form, which makes it compara- 
tively poor reading, was an essential part of its actual success. 
He stamped himself on his speeches just as he had stamped 
himself on his business. His audiences had to pass judgment 
on the man more than on the message, and the man could not 
but look good to them. 

When he returned to Chicago the campaign was virtually over. 
Only a little over a week remained, and during that time there 
was nothing to be done but to gather the fruits of four months 
of preparation. During the final weeks the different lines of 
work came to a head precisely as planned. There were no mis- 
givings at Republican headquarters, and the rank and file of the 
party were made to feel equally confident. The enthusiasm was 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1900 341 

not as great as it had been during the final week of the previous 
campaign, but it did not need to be as great. They had been 
able to conduct an aggressive campaign from a defensive posi- 
tion, not only because their defences were strong, and their 
resources in men and money were large, but because the attack 
upon them never developed much impetus. The American 
people were expansionist in their general attitude, and they were 
willing to incur the risks and pay the expenses of a policy of 
national expansion. They were also satisfied with the prospects 
of continued prosperity, which the reelection of Mr. McKinley 
guaranteed ; and they were willing to believe that prosperity 
with the trusts was better than famine without them. So the 
Republicans won their most overwhelming victory since 1872. 
McKinley and Roosevelt obtained a plurality of 832,000 over 
Bryan and a clear majority of 443,000 in a total popular vote of 
almost 14,000,000. In the North Bryan carried only the mining 
states of Colorado, Idaho, Montana and Nevada. In South 
Dakota Richard F. Pettigrew lost his seat in the Senate and was 
replaced by a Republican. Bryan was beaten in his own state. 
'The Populist agitation, which had so long dominated the agri- 
cultural states west of the Mississippi River, was done to death. 
The Democrats were so weakened and discredited that they 
ceased for the time being to constitute even an effective opposi- 
tion. The Republicans had received a clear mandate to govern 
the country in the interest of business expansion. 



CHAPTER XXII 

SHIP SUBSIDIES 

The triumphant reelection of President McKinley consoli- 
dated the work with which the political leadership of Mark 
Hanna was peculiarly, if not exclusively, associated. For the 
first time since Mr. Cleveland made a serious attack upon the 
protective tariff in 1887, the business of the country was in all 
its branches guaranteed at least for a time against the discon- 
certing effects of inimical political agitation. The election of 
1896 had not completely restored confidence, because his previous 
misfortunes had unstrung the nerves of the average business man, 
and because, after the Spanish War was over and business began 
to revive, there loomed up in the near future another disconcert- 
ing election. Not until that contest was favorably decided could 
confidence be entirely restored. So much hinged upon the 
result that as the first of November approached, business men 
became more rather than less hesitant and apprehensive. 
Their relief was correspondingly great when the Republican 
victory proved to be comprehensive and decisive. All hesita- 
tion at once vanished, and there began a period of unprecedented 
business expansion. 

Mark Hanna had labored to bring about this result ; and his 
own personal prestige was substantially enhanced by its appear- 
ance. After the election he began to exercise an amount and 
a kind of political power which has no parallel in American his- 
tory. The group of causes which, after his appointment to the 
Senate, had limited his activity and made his influence at 
Washington somewhat subterranean, had lost their force. The 
Spanish War was over. The attention of the country was to 
be fastened for some time on his own favorite subject of political 
economics. He had passed through his apprenticeship as Sena- 
tor. He had won the confidence of almost all his colleagues in 
the Senate and the warm affection of many of them. He was 

342 



SHIP SUBSIDIES 343 

thoroughly estabUshed as one of the steering committee of the 
Upper House. His successful stumping tour during the cam- 
paign had increased the area of his personal popularity with the 
American people. At the same time none of the former in- 
gredients of his effective power had suffered any diminution. 
In spite of his disagreements with Mr. McKinley before and 
during the campaign, their relations were never more close and 
confidential than they were during the early months of 1901. 
And, of course, the reelection of Mr. McKinley decidedly in- 
creased his influence both with the leading business men of the 
country and with the local leaders of the Republican party. 

Mr. Hanna exercised his power so discreetly that it rarely 
became a matter of public comment or protest ; but occasion- 
ally some evidence or expression of it slipped out. One such 
incident occurred during the short session preceding Mr. 
McKinley's second inauguration. Certain Democratic Senators 
were pressing the passage of a bill providing for the immediate 
construction of a canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific by the 
Nicaraguan route, but they could accomplish nothing, because 
the Republican leaders were not ready to act on the matter, 
until pending negotiations with Great Britain for the abrogation 
of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty were concluded. In the midst 
of the discussion, Senator Clay cf Georgia made the following 
appeal to Mr. Hanna, which reads curiously in the light of the 
latter's subsequent activity in relation to an interoceanic canal. 

"I appeal," said Senator Clay, "to the National Chairman 
of the party in power to come to the support of the bill providing 
for the construction of this waterway. Does the distinguished 
Senator from Ohio recognize that this great waterway is of more 
importance to the people of the United States and to American 
commerce than his ship-subsidy scheme ? I appeal to the Sena- 
tor from Ohio because I know the influence which he exerts 
among his party associates. I realize that a word from him 
would mean success to this great enterprise. We all know that 
he largely shapes and molds the policy of his party. We know 
the influence he has exerted in keeping before the Senate this 
ship-subsidy scheme, which has consumed so much of the time 
of the Senate." 

It is scarcely necessary to add that this somewhat naive sup- 



344 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

plication failed to move the hard heart of Mr. Hanna ; but the 
Senator from Georgia was a true prophet in asserting that a 
word — albeit a long word — from Mr. Hanna would eventually 
have much to do with the success of an interoceanic canal. 

If Mr. Hanna made no response to the appeal of the Sena- 
tor from Georgia, it was not because he repudiated some measure 
of responsibility for the passage of a legislative program. His 
position, indeed, demanded that he should do what he could to 
carry out the promises of his party in the matter of legislation, 
and the position of the party itself made the redemption of such 
promises more than ever important. Never since the recon- 
structed Southern States renewed their representation in Con- 
gress had the Republican control over all the departments of 
government been so complete and so secure. Never, apparently, 
had the party been so thoroughly united on all questions of 
public policy. Never had it possessed such general confidence 
in the ability and good faith of its leadership. If partisan 
responsibility amounted to anything at all, an energetic effort 
must be made to pass the legislation to which the party was 
pledged. Mr. Hanna's complex position as the Congressional 
representative of the President, as Chairman of the National 
Committee and as one of the most prominent Senators made it 
inevitable that he should play a leading part in redeeming such 
pledges. 

The only kind of legislation in which Mr. Hanna could take 
any lively personal interest would necessarily have for its object 
the promotion of business activity. That was the cause with 
which his personal political career was identified, and on behalf 
of which the Republicans had assumed and retained power. 
For the most part all that business needed in order to become 
more prosperous was to be let alone. Existing legislation both 
national and state was encouraging it in almost every possible 
way. But there was one branch of American industry and 
commerce, which was far from prosperous, and which assuredly 
needed some additional protection on the part of such a solici- 
tous government. The American merchant marine engaged in 
foreign trade was notoriously decrepit. Over nine-tenths of the 
imports and exports of the country were carried in vessels 
which were not built in American shipyards, which did not 




Mr. Hanna in 1901 



SHIP SUBSIDIES 345 

employ American labor, and the foreign owners of which col- 
lected their tolls from American merchants. In the absence of 
some additional legislation this condition was likely to become 
worse rather than better, because the American either as ship- 
builder or operator could not compete on equal terms with for- 
eigners, and particularly with Englishmen and Germans. Un- 
less the government gave to him the same kind of assistance 
that it gave to the other branches of American industry, the 
American merchant marine would continue to stagnate. 

As early as 1888 the problem of re-creating an American mer- 
chant marine had been considered by the Republican leaders. 
The subsequent platforms of the party had declared in favor 
of some effective means of restoring the American flag to the 
high seas. But throughout the whole of this period legislation 
in regard to the matter was not seriously pressed, because other 
issues had forced themselves to the front. Now, however, that 
the Republicans were in full control, and were free to deal with 
domestic economic problems, it was inevitable that the matter 
should come up for insistent consideration. They could not 
have avoided the attempt to pass some kind of a bill, even if 
Mr. Hanna had not been on hand to urge them on; and Mr. 
Hanna's personal influence made the attempt the more unavoid- 
able and the more energetic. 

Ever since Mr. Hanna had entered public life he had been 
interested in the revival of the American merchant marine as he 
had been in no other economic policy. His own business career 
had been continuously connected with the building and opera- 
tion of ships, so that he brought to the subject a prolonged and 
instructive personal experience. When he entered the Senate 
he was appointed to the Committee on Commerce, partly be- 
cause he wanted to have a hand in the work of framing the 
legislation the passage of which had already been approved by 
the party leaders. The one important measure which he per- 
sonally introduced was the original Hanna-Frye Subsidy Bill 
of 1898. It could not be pressed at that time, but he frequently 
discussed the necessity of such legislation in his speeches on the 
stump. He was doing his best to create a more vigorous public 
opinion in its favor throughout the Middle West. That part 
of the country had never been much interested in the restora- 



346 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

tion of the American flag to the high seas, and it was not easy 
to make its audiences listen to arguments in favor of the desired 
legislation. But the fact that he was risking his popularity 
in keeping the subject before his constituents did not deter him. 
His private secretary, Mr. Elmer Dover, states that ship 
subsidies were the one subject which he persisted in preaching, 
even when he was boring his audiences and knew that he was 
boring them. 

His lively and insistent interest in ship-subsidy legislation 
was not, however, due merely to his own personal participation 
in the upbuilding of American fresh-water shipping. The 
subject made a strong appeal to him as a matter of national 
policy. Mr. Hanna had a sound and comprehensive under- 
standing of the principles underlying American economic 
legislation. He saw that every branch of American industry, 
agriculture and domestic commerce rested more or less on encour- 
agement by the government, and that such encouragement was 
granted on the assumption that the public economic interest 
was most effectually promoted by the stimulation of private 
enterprise. On this basis a national economic system had been 
created, the several parts of which were closely connected, and 
which with one exception included every essential economic 
activity. The one exception was that of American shipping 
engaged in foreign trade. He never could understand either 
why this exception had been allowed to occur or why it was not 
immediately remedied. It was to him incomprehensible that 
such an opportunity of employing American capital and labor 
should be neglected, and that the builders and possible opera- 
tors of ocean-going ships should not be granted the same en- 
couragement as that which every other essential American eco- 
nomic activity had obtained in one form or another. 

In the winter of 1900 and 1901 certain recent developments 
in the character of American exports gave peculiar pertinence 
to 'legislation in aid of American shipping. It was just at this 
moment that American manufacturers, particularly of metal 
products, had begun a very successful invasion of the foreign 
markets. The exports of manufactured articles had increased 
suddenly and enormously. The prevailing opinion was that 
certain of them had outgrown the home market, that their pro- 



I 



SHIP SUBSIDIES 347 

ductive capacity was far in excess of domestic consumption 
and that better arrangements must be made to introduce 
American products abroad. The grouping of many manufac- 
turing plants under one ownership and management was ex- 
plained and defended as a necessary step in the development of 
American export trade. It was claimed that the government 
could contribute substantially to the better organization of the 
export trade by subsidizing American marine carriers. From 
this point of view, ship-subsidy legislation became an essential 
part of a really efficient national economic organization. A 
government which had encouraged American manufacturers, 
when they were occupied in selling almost exclusively to the 
home market, should be all the more ready to supply them 
with an economic agency which would help them to make their 
profits out of foreigners. 

The decision was reached, consequently, to tackle seriously 
the question of subsidy legislation during the short session 
which began on Dec. 1, 1900, and this decision was at- 
tributed chiefly to Mr. Hanna. For the first time his leadership 
became a conspicuous fact in the conduct of the Senate's busi- 
ness. He was not in actual charge of the measure on the floor 
of the Senate. That duty devolved upon Senator Frye, who 
was Chairman of the Committee on Commerce. But he was 
none the less more responsible for the legislative career of the 
bill than was its floor manager. In Senator's Frye absence 
he assumed charge of the measure. He frequently intervened 
in the debate, which occupied a large part of the Senate's time 
from Dec. 4, 1900, to Feb. 18, 1901. On December 13 he 
made on behalf of the bill the first long speech of his career 
as Senator — a speech which was generally acknowledged to be 
a credit to its author and a very able presentation of his side 
of the case. At the same time he was actively canvassing among 
his colleagues, in order to find out how they would vote ; and he 
was using his influence all over the country to create a more 
widespread public opinion in favor of the proposed legislation. 

Notwithstanding the apparently vigorous attempt made to 
pass a subsidy bill during the short session, it is improbable 
that its advocates really intended to do more than concentrate 
public attention on their legislative enterprise. Even if they 



348 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

could have brought the bill to a vote in the Senate, there was 
no time to force it through the House in the last weeks of 
a Congressional session. As a matter of fact they were power- 
less even to secure a vote on it in the Senate. The opposition 
of the Democrats was furious and determined. They had de- 
cided that it should not be voted upon at that session, and 
the rules of the Senate permitted them to discuss the measure 
at sufficient length to kill it. The Republican leaders must 
have realized their powerlessness. In pressing the bill they 
must have been making a demonstration in force, preparatory 
to a better sustained movement under the more favorable 
conditions of the ensuing long session. 

Just as soon as the fifty-seventh Congress assembled on 
Dec. 1, 1901, a renewed attempt was made in the Senate to 
pass a subsidy bill differing in certain essential respects from 
the former measure. Its discussion was begun on March 3, 
1902, and it occupied the entire time of the Senate until March 
17, when a vote was obtained. During this second debate Mr. 
Hanna played, if anything, an even more important part than 
he had the year before. He did not, indeed, make any long 
set speech on behalf of the bill, but he made a number of extem- 
poraneous statements in reference to particular phases of the 
discussion; and superficially he was more interested in the 
measure and more responsible for it than was the Chairman 
of the Committee. 

The vote taken on March 17 was favorable to the bill. There 
were forty-two Senators recorded in its favor and only thirty- 
two in opposition — its opponents including four such good 
Republicans as Senators Spooner, Allison, Dolliver and Proc- 
tor. It was then sent to the House, but although the session 
was still young, it was never voted on by that body. The 
attempt to stimulate the building and operation of American 
ships in foreign trade consequently failed ; and its failure under 
the circumstances must have been due to the influence of very 
powerful opposing currents of public opinion. At a period 
when the Republican party was in full control of the govern- 
ment and was powerfully organized for united action, its most 
prominent leaders were unable to secure the acceptance of a 
measure which, whatever its faults, was an honest and care- 



SHIP SUBSIDIES 349 

fully considered attempt to meet an apparent public need and 
redeem a party pledge. The failure was, moreover, not due 
to the Democratic minority, which had far less power under 
the rules of the House than it had under the rules of the Senate. 
It was due chiefly to the impossibility of creating much interest 
in the object of the bill among Middle Western Republicans. 
They failed to see how the interests of their constituents would 
be helped by subsidy legislation; and in the absence of any 
local benefit they did not want to incur the unpopularity which 
might result from the actual appropriation of national funds 
for the benefit of a particular industry. 

If the attempt to pass the bill had been successful, I should 
have been obliged to consider in detail its provisions, its merits 
and its consequences. But the ultimate failure of the attempt 
makes it unnecessary to discuss the measure, except in relation 
to the motives and ideas which induced Mr. Hanna so enthu- 
siastically and tenaciously to favor it. Why he attached so 
much importance to it has already been indicated in a general 
way ; but it is desirable to explain somewhat more in detail and 
partly in his own words his personal attitude towards the 
matter. Its importance in his eyes will seem either blind or sin- 
ister to people who object on principle to any attempt at the pro- 
motion of a public interest by the subsidizing and encouragement 
of private interests. But Mr. Hanna never addressed his argu- 
ments to people of such opinions. The system to which he had 
been accustomed all his life, and which determined all his own eco- 
nomic ideas was one which had identified the public interest with 
the encouragement of every phase of private productive enter- 
prise. It had deliberately sought to bestow upon the farmers, 
the manufacturers, the miners, the cattlemen, the timbermen, 
the railroads and corporations of all kinds direct or indirect 
subsidies. Such had been the national economic policy since 
the Civil War. It was the system actually in existence, and 
it seemed to him really national in its scope, in its meaning 
and in the distribution of its benefits. 

He is continually arguing that the adoption of some measure 
which would restore American shipping to the high seas is a 
necessary part of this national economic policy. Considering 
the protection which the government extended to other in- 



350 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

dustries, it was unjust as well as unwise that similar encourage- 
ment should be denied to American shipping engaged in foreign 
trade ; and there were many ways in which the national eco- 
nomic interests were really endangered thereby. A war be- 
tween Germany and England might work upon the large per- 
centage of our foreign commerce carried under the flags of 
those powers, a serious injury which the government of the 
United States would be powerless to avert. The efficiency of 
the American navy and its supplies of men and auxiliary ships 
depended on the existence of a flourishing merchant marine. 
In these and other similar respects the encouragement of Ameri- 
can shipping was merely a political precaution demanded by 
the necessities of general national policy; but it was equally 
demanded by the prevailing conditions of international com- 
mercial warfare. All the other great trading nations had built 
up a merchant marine partly for the sake of stimulating their 
export trade. American merchants and manufacturers were 
hampered by the lack of such an engine, and the benefit of 
supplying the need would be out of all proportion to its actual 
cost. 

"The whole question," he wrote in an article in the National 
Magazine for January, 1901, "resolves itself into this: If the 
American people can be brought to understand the need and 
value of an American mercantile mar'ne to the nation, they 
will support a bill which makes provisions for just such an 
accomplishment. The benefit aimed at is for the nation. To 
secure that benefit for the nation, incidentally certain individ- 
uals — those willing to risk their capital in American-built ships 
in our foreign trade — will be safeguarded against loss in com- 
petition with foreign ships. This result, it cannot be said too 
emphatically, will utterly fail of accomplishment unless a very 
substantial reduction is brought about in the rates of freight 
charged for the carriage of our exports and imports, because 
only by reducing rates can American ships expect to wrest any 
of the business from their foreign competitors. The reduction 
in rates will, it is believed, several times repay the American 
people for whatever expenditure the government may make 
directly to the beneficiaries of the bill." Again in his speech 
in favor of the bill, delivered on Dec. 13, 1900, he said : 



SHIP SUBSIDIES 351 

"This question is broader than can be written in the lines of 
the bill. It will be widespread in its benefits. It is not aimed 
at any class or any particular industry. It is one of those 
measures whose influence will permeate every industry and 
every class in the length and breadth of the United States. 
When I am told that the people of the interior of this country 
are not interested in the shipping question, I say it is not true 
in fact. Every man, no matter what his vocation in life, is 
interested and will be benefited directly or indirectly, because 
you cannot create an industry like this, requiring first the de- 
velopment of our raw materials and then the construction of 
ships which open up the markets of the world and give greater 
opportunities to our merchants and manufacturers, without 
benefiting every industry and every line of business." 

These words of Senator Hanna's were uttered in absolute 
good faith. He sincerely believed that in promoting legisla- 
tion which in his opinion would restore the American flag to 
the high seas, he was making an essential contribution to a 
constructive national business policy. He could not under- 
stand why so many Republicans who were willing to subsidize 
manufacturers with high protective rates should shrink from 
granting to the shipping industry similar encouragement. He 
himself knew that there was no essential difference between 
paying the money directly out of the Treasury and collecting 
it indirectly from the consumers — except perhaps that the 
second method was more costly. Yet certain Republicans 
and protectionist Democrats talked as if the two cases were 
different, and as if the only object of the ship-subsidy bill was 
to make a gift of the people's money to a group of wealthy men 
interested in ocean transportation. An accusation of this kind 
was continually being flung at his head by the Democrats. 
These charges of bad faith and equivocal motives aroused in 
Mr. Hanna an honest indignation, and on one occasion, Feb. 
15, 1901, he answered the taunts with dignity and self- 
restraint. I quote his short speech on that occasion almost 
in full : — 

"Mr. President, I have listened patiently for days to this discussion, 
and have listened with astonishment to many of the reckless state- 
ments which have been made by the opponents of this bill, state- 



352 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

ments which cannot be borne out by facts and which are intended to 
place before the country a misconception of the merits of this measure. 
I have known perfectly well of the intended opposition to defeat 
the measure. I have heard insinuations with reference to men who 
have been connected with the measure in this body and out of it 
which made me blush, and I resent them. I have heard the scolding 
from our friend from Colorado [Mr. Teller]. But, Mr. President, we 
are not children. We believe when we present a measure on the floor of 
this Senate and advocate it, whether as a Republican measure or simply 
as a public measure, that we are entitled at least to be considered as 
honest in our purpose. From the time that this bill was introduced 
until this hour the effort I have made to secure its enactment into 
law has been for the purpose of accomplishing what it has been stated 
it would accomplish — to upbuild the merchant marine of the United 
States and to better the conditions of the people. 

"I do not claim to have any greater technical or general knowledge 
than the average of men, but I claim to have some knowledge, as the 
result of experience, that leads me to make certain deductions as to 
economic measures ; and when I advocate this measure from my seat 
in this Senate I think I should have the same right and the same con- 
sideration at the hands of this body that I am willing to grant to any 
other Senator ; that I am sincere and honest in my convictions, and that 
I am advocating the measure, not for the purpose, as is claimed here, 
of looting the Treasury of the United States, but for advancing the 
material interests of the people of the United States. 

"Mr. President, as far as I am concerned as one of the advocates 
of this shipping bill, after having made this statement I propose to 
occupy the same position from now until the 4th of March that I have 
occupied from the beginning — to demand at the hands of this body 
fair treatment for an honest measure with an honest intent ; and 
I do not propose to be side-tracked by any Senator from the other 
side of the Chamber. I myself will decide when I will go on the 
side-track. 

"For my part I have tried to be fair, and even liberal, to the other i 
side ; and I am met with the taunt, almost descending to personality, 
that the purposes of those who are advocating this measure is to pay 
back subscriptions to political campaign funds, to pay political debts, 
and that the Republican party is the only partj'' that descends to such 
pohtical measures — an insinuation that, by virtue of my position as 
Chairman of the National Republican Committee, I am responsible 
for this legislation here in order to make recompense to those who, 
you say, have contributed to the campaign fund of the RepubUcan 



SHIP SUBSIDIES 353 

party. Is that a part of an economic question to be discussed 
in this body ? Is that what you call fair treatment in legislation ? 

"Mr. President, as I have said in the beginning, my interest in 
this measure is because I believe it to be for the interests of the people 
of this country. I believe that it means the upbuilding of a new 
industry, a kindred industry to those industries which have made this 
country great and prosperous. It means another step in the direction 
of development, not confined to section or to party, but for the good 
of the whole country." 

In conclusion Mr. Hanna turned upon his critics, and accused 
them of passing without a murmur a river and harbor bill con- 
taining provisions which made the ship-subsidy bill by com- 
parison look white and innocent. Whether any particular 
measure for the encouragement of trade was called a looting 
of the Treasury or a piece of constructive economic legislation 
depended upon the number of Congressional districts which it 
happened to benefit. I have read a great deal of Mr. Hanna's 
private correspondence with the ship-builders and operators 
who would have benefited from the operation of the subsidy 
bill, and I failed to discover any intimation that the bill was 
not framed in good faith to accomplish its ostensible object. 
Whether, as a matter of fact, it would have done so without 
any benefit to private interests, beyond the amount absolutely 
necessary to accomplish the desired object, is a question upon 
which none but an expert can pass. In the course of the debate 
Senator Spooner made some shrewd criticisms of the details 
of both the bills, which might well have caused doubts in the 
minds of his hearers. Such doubts are bound to arise when- 
ever the people actually benefited by any attempt to encour- 
age a private industry have a great deal to say about the terms 
of its encouragement. Economic legislation which seeks to 
accomplish a constructive business purpose by the direct or 
indirect subsidizing of private interests should be framed, as 
it is in Germany, by experts whose opinions cannot be biassed 
by any prospect of personal advantage. Our American prac- 
tice had, however, been entirely different. With some few 
exceptions all American economic legislation before 1900 was 
practically dictated by its beneficiaries. In allowing its bene- 
ficiaries to have a good deal to say about the ship-subsidy bill 
2a 



354 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

Mr. Hanna and his associates were following a long-established 
precedent. But the precedent was based upon the idea that 
the pubUc and private interests involved were substantially 
identical. Mr. Hanna himself believed them to be substantially 
identical; and when the subsidy legislation failed it was his 
honest opinion that a wise and necessary measure for promot- 
ing the expansion of American commerce had been killed by 
cowardice and sectional prejudice. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

THE DEATH OF PRESIDENT MCKINLEY 

In the preceding chapter the fate of the attempt to revive 
American shipping engaged in foreign trade has been followed 
to the end, although the end did not take place until after the 
occurrence of many other extremely unportant incidents in 
Mr. Hanna's life. In the meantime Mr. McKmley's second 
mauguration had taken place amid much jubilation and per- 
sonal and party congratulations. Mr. Hanna had charge of 
the ceremony, and during its progress was, according to the 
newspapers, almost as much its hero as was the President him- 
self. But the man who, according to his Western flatterer 
could make the sun stand still could not prevent the rain 
from falling. The combined ceremony and festivity was marred 
by the usual foul weather of early March. 

Local politics in Cleveland occupied much of his time durin^r 
the spring of 1901. At the municipal election held in April 
Tom Johnson was elected Mayor of Cleveland for the first time 
by a substantial majority over the Republican candidate. Mr. 
Johnson continued to be both Mayor of Cleveland and a thorn 
m the flesh to Mr. Hanna for the next three years. With all 
his talent for political management he never succeeded in keep- 
mg the Republicans in control of his own city— and that in 
spite of the fact that the city usually went Republican at na- 
tional elections. His street railroad interests were undoubtedly 
a serious embarrassment to him in his handling of the local politi- 
cal situation, and prevented him from acting or from appearing 
to act as disinterestedly as he did in state and national politics. 
Senator Hanna himself was inclined to attribute the ill success 
of the local Republican organization chiefly to one cause. Since 
1886, as we have seen, the Republicans of Cuyahoga County 
had been nominating their candidates for office under the 
so-called Crawford County system of direct primaries. The 

355 



356 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

system in its operation had undoubtedly handicapped the local 
machine, when it attempted to dictate the party nominees, but 
it had also encouraged factional quarrels, weakened the organi- 
zation's fighting power, and produced a lot of second-rate candi- 
dates. Mr. Hanna's own opinion of its effects and defects is 
expressed in a speech made by him to the Tippecanoe and other 
Republican clubs on May 11, 1901. He said : — 

" I have watched very closely the workings of these two plans. 
As to the Crawford County plan, I have found that its appli- 
cation in the rural districts has resulted very successfully, but 
in the large cities we must judge theory by practice. The argu- 
ments in favor of the convention plan are conclusive. In the 
cities it is impossible to nominate the best candidates by the 
direct vote plan. The Crawford County plan does defeat the 
will of the majority. It has done so time and time again. 

"The primaries in the city of Cleveland last spring, and in 
fact for several years, have not been representative of the Re- 
publican vote. An enrollment of Republican voters is advo- 
cated, but even then we are liable to be imposed upon. There 
are two things of the utmost importance, which cannot be 
accomplished under the Crawford County plan — the distribu- 
tion of candidates, geographically ; also the proper recognition 
of nationalities. Both are very important. The good men. 
of all nationalities should have an opportunity, and they do 
not have it under the Crawford County plan. Only in a delib- 
erative body, such as a convention, are they given considera- 
tion. These impressions come from close observation. Change 
the plan now, and we will change the trend of things in Cuya- 
hoga County." Not even Senator Hanna's influence, however, 
sufficed to make Cleveland Republicans go back to the conven- 
tion system of nominations. In a democracy nothing is more 
difficult than to withdraw from the people any power which, 
they have once exercised. 

While Mr. Hanna was meeting with stumbling blocks in 
Cleveland, the Republicans in the state accepted his leadership 
without question. The State Convention assembled in Co- 
lumbus on June 25, and in it Mr. Hanna was the dominating 
influence. It is a rule in the politics of Ohio that one good 
term as Governor deserves another. Mr. George K. Nash had 



THE DEATH OF PRESIDENT MCKINLEY 357 

served satisfactorily for two years, and there was no question 
about his renomination. Senator Foraker was as usual the 
orator of the occasion, and not even Mr. McKinley's warmest 
friend could have extolled the administration in more glowing 
terms. Mr. Hanna may have chafed at times, because he was 
obliged to cooperate in public politics \vith a man with whom 
he was on such bad terms m private, but if so, he may have 
been consoled, because of the part which Mr. Foraker was 
obliged to play on formal occasions as official praise-monger 
for the admmistration. Mr. Hanna followed Senator Foraker, 
and in his speech brought the gospel of prosperity down to date.' 
Now that it had really come, how was it to be continued ? 
Manifestly by continuing to support the party who had brought 
it about. Only in this way could the newly-made confidence 
be retained. 

"The foundation of prosperity is confidence— confidence in 
the future. The business man, the large operator, if he does 
business but for to-day and to-morrow only considers to-day 
and to-morrow. If he is limited to that space of action he gov- 
erns his actions accordingly, and he only operates for a few 
hours in advance because he knows not what the future may 
bring forth. Now, I made it as a statement as infallible as 
the laws of nature that, in order to sustain present conditions 
in this country he must have absolute confidence as to what 
is in store for the future. Therefore, resting upon that founda- 
tion of security in our finances, upon the policy which has built 
us up as a nation, upon the policy which has carried us forward 
as a progressive nation, the great mass of people will continue 
to trust those men and that party and adopt it as evidence of 
security in future operations. It is the operation of that future 
that makes business. It is the confidence in the future which 
induces capital to expand and develop and that brings to all 
classes of labor more work." 

As there was no disposition in Ohio to displace the ruling 
powers, the campaign was not very strenuous. Mr. Hanna 
himself went on the stump for about ten days just before the 
election, but he could have spared himself the trouble. The 
result was a foregone conclusion, if only because of Mr. McKinley's 
assassination, which had occurred in September. Mr. Nash 



\ 



358 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

was reelected by a plurality of 60,000. The whole Republican 
state ticket was also elected as well as a safe majority in both 
Houses of the Legislature— thus assuring Mr. Foraker a second 
term in the Senate. 

During the summer a very good-looking and gay little ex- 
position was being held in Buffalo for the sake ostensibly of 
celebrating the great fact or cause of Pan-Americanism. ^ Presi- 
dent McKinley had been scheduled to pay Buffalo a visit early 
in September, and he decided to take the opportunity of making 
a speech which would outline the future policy of the adminis- 
tration. The recent increase in the American exports of manu- 
factured goods had convinced him that the country should 
enter upon a more liberal commercial pohcy — one which would 
promote exports from this country by allowing other countries 
increasing opportunities of trading in the markets of the United 
States. According to his usual habit he carefully prepared 
a speech along the foregoing lines; and just before going to 
Buffalo he met Mr. Hanna by appointment and they discussed 
fully the text of the proposed address. The speech was de- 
livered on September 5, and was received with an outburst of 
approval from practically the entire country. 

About four o'clock on the afternoon of the following day, 
i during a popular reception held in one of the Exposition build- 
ings, President McKinley was shot by a demented anarchist. 
The' wound was serious, and all of Mr. McKinley's friends and 
official family hurried to Buffalo. Among them was Mr. 
Hanna. There was, of course, nothing to do but wait ; and it 
looked, in the beginning, as if the waiting would not be in vam. 
The wounded man appeared to be recovering. After several 
days of apparently uninterrupted progress on the part of the 
patient, the group of secretaries and friends assembled in Buffalo 
began to disperse. Mr. Hanna finally decided that he himself 
could risk a brief absence. The national encampment of the 
Grand Army of the Republic was being held in Cleveland during 
the coming week. His attendance had been promised. He 
wanted to keep his engagement, because he had just been elected 
a member of the organization, and a political leader always 
desires to stand well with the Grand Army. 



THE DEATH OF PRESIDENT MCKINLEY 359 

After making up his mind to risk a short absence, he went to 
the doctors in attendance on the President, and told them that 
he was going over to Cleveland to keep an engagement with the 
Grand Army. He asked them for their very best judgment as 
to Mr. McKinley's condition so that he could give to his audi- 
ence absolutely authentic news about their President's and 
comrade's chances of life. The doctors authorized him to say 
that Mr. McKinley had passed the critical point of his illness 
and would live. So he went to Cleveland with a light heart 
and made his speech, part of which has already been quoted 
in another connection. Before going on the platform he re- 
ceived by telegraph from the President's secretary, Mr. Cortel- 
you, a final confirmation of the news — which was announced 
to the audience and which was received with the liveliest ex- 
pressions of relief and joy. Few Presidents of the United States 
have been more sincerely and generally liked than was Mr. 
McKinley. A committee of Cleveland citizens was formed, 
which organized and held a meeting of thanksgiving for the 
President's promised recovery. 

That same night, however, Mr. Hanna, who had been ex- 
hausted by the strain and fatigues of the last week, was 
awakened at 2 a. m. by a message from Buffalo that Mr. McKin- 
ley's condition had suddenly taken a turn for the worse. By 
four o'clock he was on his way back to Buffalo in a special train, 
and when he reached there he found the President's condition 
actually critical. On the evening of that same day, when the 
doctors realized that death was a matter only of a few hours, 
a number of relatives and friends, who were waiting in Mr. 
John G. Milbum's house, were allowed to have a last look at 
the dying man. First Mrs. McKinley was shown in, then 
Abner McKinley, Justice Day and Mr. Hanna. The President 
was unconscious and barely alive. On no other occasion durinf^ 
the illness was Mr. Hanna allowed to see him. Some day; 
before, the President had inquired: "Is Mark there?" and 
had been told of his friend's attendance but of the impossibility 
of any interview. Mr. Hanna was very much touched by this 
evidence of the sufferer's interest. Although a self-contained 
man, he utterly broke dowTi after his visit to the sick room and 
cried like a child. 



V' 



360 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND AVORK 

With almost a dozen other relatives and friends, Mr. Hanna 
waited in the Milburn library from seven o'clock in the even- 
ing until the President's death was announced, almost seven 
hours later. Early in the night he called to him his secretary, 
Mr. Dover, Colonel Myron T. Herrick and one or two others, and 
discussed with them the necessary arrangements for the care 
and transportation of the body and the funeral. The different 
parts of the work were divided up among the different members 
of the party, the necessary cooperation of the railroad officials 
secured, and all the other details planned. Under such cir- 
cumstances any action was a relief, and even such painful 
preparations diminished the distress of the dreadful suspense. 
About 2 A.M. Mr. Cortelyou announced to the group that death 
had finally come. Not a word was spoken. They all left the 
room silently and soon afterwards the house. 

The next morning Mr. Hanna arose early, and drove down 
to the business section of the city. There he interviewed the 
railroad company's officers, and attended to his share of the 
necessary arrangements. While returning from the under- 
taker's he passed the house of Mr. Ansley Wilcox, and noticed 
in its immediate vicinity an unusual commotion. A number 
of soldiers, policemen, attendants and by-standers were gath- 
ered around the entrance. Suddenly he realized that Mr. 
Roosevelt had been staying in the house, and that the new Presi- 
dent must have been taking the oath of office. Mr. Hanna 
decided to call. As soon as his presence was announced Mr. 
Roosevelt invited him in and repeated to him the promise of 
future policy and behavior which had just been made to the 
members of the Cabinet. The new President, realizing that 
he had been elected under the shadow of the dead man, had 
declared that he proposed to continue unbroken his predecessor's 
policy and Cabinet. What followed can best be narrated in 
Mr. Roosevelt's own words. 

"In the evening Senator Hanna by arrangement came to call. 
The dead man had been his closest friend as well as the political 
leader whom he idolized and whose right hand he himself was. 
He had been occupying a position of power and influence, be- 
cause of his joint relationship to the President and Senate, such 
as no other man in our history whom I can recall ever occupied. 



< 



f 



THE DEATH OF PEESIDENT MCKINLEY 361 



"He had never been very close to me, although of course we 
had worked heartily together when I was a candidate for Vice- 
President and he was managing the campaign. But we had 
never been closely associated, and I do not think that he had 
at that time felt particularly drawn to me. 

"The situation was one in which any small man, any man 
to whom petty motives appealed, would have been sure to do 
something which would tend to bring about just such a rift as 
had always divided from the party leaders in Congress any 
man coming to the Presidency as I came to it. But Senator 
Hanna had not a single small trait in his nature. As soon as 
he called on me, without any beating about the bush, he told 
me that he had come to say that he would do all in his power 
to make my administration a success, and that, subject, of 
course, to my acting as my past career and my words that after- 
noon gave him the right to expect, he would in all ways en- 
deavor to strengthen and uphold my hands. There was not 
in his speech a particle of subserviency, no worship of the rising 
sun. On the contrary, he stated that he wished me to under- 
stand that he was in no sense committing himself to favor my 
nomination when the next Presidential election came on ; for 
that was something the future must decide ; but that he would 
do all he could to make my administration a success and that 
his own counsel and support within and without the Senate 
should be mine in the effort to carry out the policies which had 
been so well begun. I, of course, thanked him and told him 
that I understood his position perfectly and was grateful for 
what he had said. 

"He made his words good. There were points on which we 
afterwards differed ; but he never permitted himself, as many 
men even of great strength and high character do permit them- 
selves, to allow his personal disapproval of some one point of 
the President's policy to lead him into trying to avenge himself 
by seeking to bring the whole policy to naught. Any one who 
has had experience in politics knows what a common failing 
this is. The fact that Senator Hanna never showed the slight- 
est trace of it, and never treated his disagreement with me on 
some difficult point as any reason for withholding his hearty sup- 
port on other points, is something which I shall not soon forget. 



362 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

"Throughout my term as President, until the time of his 
death, I was in very close relations with him. He was contin- 
ually at the White House and I frequently went over to break- 
fast and dinner at his house ; while there was no important 
feature of any of my policies which I did not carefully discuss 
with him. In the great majority of instances we were able 
to come to an agreement. I always found that together with 
his ruggedness, his fearlessness and efficiency he combined entire 
straightforwardness of character. I never needed to be in 
doubt as to whether he would carry through a fight or in any 
way go back on his word. He was emphatically a big man of 
strong aggressive generous nature." 

Because of Mr. Roosevelt's fine pledge to continue the policy 
of his predecessor, the death of Mr. McKinley and the accession 
of a new President made at the moment a smaller alteration 
in the political situation than might have been anticipated. 
But there remained the terrible wound dealt to Mr. Hanna's 
personal feelings by the loss of his friend. The strength of his 
attachment to Mr. McKinley received a striking testimonial, 
when after his visit to the dying man, he broke down and burst 
into tears. He was a man of intense feelings, which were rarely, 
if ever, betrayed in public. Indeed, it seemed almost like a 
point of honor with him, as with so many men of strong will, 
not to permit any outward expression of his personal affections. 
After long separation from relatives, to whom he was and had 
shown himself to be devotedly attached, he would after their 
return greet them in a very casual way or not greet them at all. 
He shrank instinctively from revealing his affections in the 
ordinary way, not because he was callous or indifferent, but 
because, perhaps, they were so lively that he could not risk 
their expression in words. He allowed his actions to speak 
for him. 

His attachment to Mr. McKinley was peculiarly deep and 
strong, because it was compounded, as Mr. Roosevelt has sug- 
gested above, of two elements — each of which was fundamental 
in his disposition. He had in the first place a veritable gift 
for friendship. His personal relations with other men con- 
stituted the very core and substance of his life. He had served 
Mr. McKinley, as he had served so many others, because of 



THE DEATH OF PRESIDENT MCKINLEY 363 

disinterested personal devotion ; but in the case of Mr. McKin- 
ley the personal devotion was heightened by feelings derived 
from another source. This particular friendship had awakened 
his aspirations. His general disposition was such that an ideal 
could make a peculiarly strong appeal to him only when it was 
embodied in a human being. Mr. McKinley's finer qualities 
aroused in him the utmost admiration. He was profoundly 
impressed by the unfailing patience, consideration and devo- 
tion which his friend had lavished on an ailing and difficult 
wife. He was, perhaps, even more impressed by Mr. McKinley's 
repeated refusals to obtain any political advantage by com- 
promises with conscience. As he himself has said, Mr. 
McKinley's declaration that there were some things which 
a Presidential candidate must not do even to be President had 
made a better man of him. And undoubtedly his friend's 
influence upon his life and career was really elevating. His 
own personal standards of behavior in politics steadily im- 
proved, partly because he was fully capable of rising to a re- 
sponsibility, as well as to an opportunity, but also partly be- 
cause of the leavening effect of his association with his friend. 
This association had meant to Mr. Hanna more than his fame, 
his career and his public achievements. It had meant as well 
the increase of public usefulness and personal self-respect which 
a man can obtain only by remaining true to a certain standard 
of public behavior. 

Towards the end of his life Mr. Hanna became increasingly 
aware of a difference between himself and Mr. McKinley in 
their respective attitudes towards personal ties and responsibili- 
ties. He never gave explicit expression to this difference, but 
he was glancing at it in the following passage in the National 
Magazine on "McKinley as I knew Him." "We were both," 
he says, "of Scotch-Irish descent, but opposite in disposition. 
He was of more direct descent than I, but it was thought from 
o^ur dispositions that he had the Scotch and I had the Irish of 

tie combination." What he means by this is probably that 
ersonal relationships were not so vital to Mr. McKinley as 
they were to himself. Mr. McKinley acted less than he did 
on the prompting of instinct and affection. The mere fact 
that the President was the more conscientious man of the two 



364 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

tended also to make him more conscious and less consistent in 
bis feelings. Mr, McKinley was solicitous of the appearance 
which he was making to the world and posterity, and this 
quality might sometimes give his behavior at least the appear- 
ance of selfishness. I am not implying that he was not a loyal 
and in his way a sincere man ; but loyalty was not to him as 
fundamental a virtue as it was to Mr. Hanna. He might have 
considered the possibility of breaking with his friend under 
conditions which would in Mr. Hanna's eyes have wholly 
failed to justify the rupture. In point of fact the latent and 
actual differences between the two men never gathered to a 
head. I have told the story of their few important disagree- 
ments ; but the wonder is, not that they were there to tell, but 
that they were not more frequent and more serious. They 
do not in any way invalidate the popular impression that the 
association between the two men was, perhaps, the most loyal 
friendship which has become a part of American political 
history. 

An honest friendship endures, not because it does not have 
any differences to overcome, but because it is strong enough 
to overcome such differences as inevitably occur. The associa- 
tion of Mr. Hanna and Mr. McKinley was punctuated with 
many trivial disputes which never became serious, partly be- 
cause of the President's tact. The two men had to reach a 
mutually acceptable decision about thousands of bits of official 
business or policy in the course of a year. Their decisions were 
at times bound to diverge, and when such divergence arose they 
might for a moment wear the appearance of being serious. IMr. 
Hanna was a plain-dealer, honest and fearless to a fault, brusque 
sometimes in manner, quick in feeling and explosive in speech. 
When he disagreed with another man he might say so with both 
heat and energy. Under such circumstances Mr. McKinley 
was at his best. He was too tactful and prudent to make 
matters worse by any contradiction or disputation. He knew 
that in a few minutes or hours the storm would blow over, and 
that Mr. Hanna would then be willing to resume the discussion 
with a cool head and the utmost good temper. 

These, however, were small things. What really tested the 
friendship was the change which gradually took place in their 



THE DEATH OF PRESIDENT MCKINLEY 365 

respective public positions. Mr. McKinley was, as I have said, 
extremely solicitous of his reputation. From the day he was 
first elected President he was represented as being under Mr. 
Hanna's control far more than was actually the case and to an 
extent which must have been galling. In matters of public 
policy he was always his own master — at least so far as Mr. 
Hanna was concerned; and even in the latter's own special 
field of political management he by no means merely submitted 
to Mr. Hanna's dictation. Mr. George B. Cortelyou, who 
had the best opportunities for judging, considered that Mr. 
McKinley was an abler politician than Mr. Hanna — and this 
in spite of the fact that he ranks Mr. Hanna's ability very high. 
INIr. McKinley did not get the credit for being either as inde- 
pendent, as courageous or as self-dependent as he really was. 
Furthermore, as time went on, Mr. Hanna increased rather than 
diminished in public stature ; and as he increased the Presi- 
dent became not absolutely but relatively smaller. Comic 
papers like Life published cartoons, in one of which Mr, 
Hanna was represented as a tall robust English gentleman with 
Mr. McKinley at his side dressed in a short coat and knee 
breeches. It was entitled "Buttons." Such a portrayal of 
their relationship would have been exasperating even had it 
been true ; but it was not true. 

If there had been any truth in it, the friendship between the 
two men could not have lasted. Mr. McKinley was bound 
to overlook the occasional public perversion of their relation 
one to another, because as a matter of fact Mr. Hanna had 
always recognized in his behavior towards his friend the essen- 
tial difference in their positions. Mr. McKinley was the master, 
Mr, Hanna was only the able and trusted Prime Minister. 
The latter never presumed upon his friendship with the Presi- 
dent, upon the contribution he had made towards Mr. McKin- 
ley's nomination or election or upon the increasing independence 
and stability of his own public position. Everybody most 
familiar with their private relations testifies that Mr, Hanna 
asked for nothing in the way of patronage to which he was not 
fully entitled. The extent of his ability or his willingness to 
obtain favors on merely personal grounds was very much over- 
estimated. He was erroneously credited, for instance, with 



366 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

many of Mr. McKinley's own appointments to offices in Ohio. 
Of course he was more assertive in urging upon the President 
appointments which were in his opinion necessary for the wel- 
fare of the party, and his judgment about such matters fre- 
quently differed from that of the President. But even in this 
respect their pecuhar relationship was mutually helpful, be- 
cause each could in some measure protect the other against 
excessive demands on the part of Republican politicians. 

At bottom the central fact in the relationship was the dis- 
interestedness of Mr. Hanna. He was able to maintain his 
friendship with the President under very trying conditions 
because his recommendations were made, not in his own interest 
but in that of the President, the party or the country. He 
never sought to use his existing power, from whatever source 
it came, for the sake merely of increasing it. His waxing per- 
sonal influence was always the by-product of his actual services 
to some individual, organization or cause. The late Bishop 
Potter said of his management of the Civic Federation that he 
had grown up to the job ; and the comment supplies the clew 
to all the success of his career. He had grown up to one job 
after another. He had grown up to the job of nominating his 
friend as Presidential candidate, to the job of managing a criti- 
cal and strenuous national campaign, to the job of securing 
the personal confidence of the American business interest, to 
the job of making himself personally popular with the people 
of Ohio, to the job of becoming one of the steering committee 
of the Senate, and finally, as we shall see, to the job of obtaining 
effective influence over organized labor as well as organized 
capital. But in his assumption and exercise of these activities 
he had never planned his own personal aggrandizement. He 
was loyal, that is, to the proper limitations of his various official 
and unofficial duties ; and this just estimate of the limits of his 
power was merely another aspect of his personal loyalty — of 
his disposition to allow other people a freedom of movement 
analogous to his own. He did not pervert his opportunities, 
because he would not bring pressure to bear upon his friends 
or demand of them excessive and unnecessary sacrifices. 

In the case of President McKinley he was the more bound 
to scrupulous loyalty because of his affection for the friend, 



THE DEATH OF PRESIDENT MCKINLEY 367 

because of his reverence for the office and because of his ad- 
miration for the man. He spoke and wrote of Mr. McKinley, 
particularly after the latter's death, in terms that may seem 
extravagant, but which are undoubtedly sincere and which 
really revealed his feelings at the time. "It is difficult," he 
says, "for me to express the extent of the love and respect which 
I, in common with many others, felt for him personally. The 
feeling was the outgrowth of an appreciation of his noble self- 
sacrificing nature. My affection for him and faith and con- 
fidence in him always seemed to be reciprocated, to the extent 
that there was never an unpleasant word passed between us, 
and the history of his administration, his Cabinet and his asso- 
ciations with public men was entirely free from intrigue and 
base selfishness. I had the closest revelations of William 
McKinley's character, I think, in our quiet hours of smoking 
and chatting when all the rest had retired. For past midnight we 
have sat many times talking over those matters which friends 
always discuss — and the closer I came to the man, the more 
lovable his character appeared. There was revealed the gentle 
growing greatness of the man who knew men, respected them 
and loved them. These pleasant episodes of a purely personal 
nature are emphasized more and more as I think of him, and 
it is these that I most cherish in the memory of the man. His 
greatness as a statesman was but the reflection of his greatness 
as a man." And in an address delivered at Toledo in Septem- 
ber, 1903, on the occasion of the unveiling of a memorial statue 
to Mr. McKinley, Mr. Hanna said: "The truest monument 
of the life of William McKinley was built and erected stone by 
stone as he lived his noble useful life until it touched the sky 
and was finished by the hands of the angels. It is the monu- 
ment of a good man's great love for his country and will forever 
and forever remain as an example to us all." 

The preceding quotations must not, of course, be consid- 
ered as a critical judgment on Mr. McKinley's character and 
career, but as the tribute of a friend, the warmth of whose ad- 
miration had been increased by the President's tragic death. 
In Mark Hanna's life Mr. McKinley had been the personal 
embodiment of those qualities of unselfishness, kindness and 
patriotism which in the preceding quotations the Senator 



368 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

celebrates with so much emotion. There was just enough 
difference between the ideas and standards of the two men to 
enable one to have a profound and edifying effect on the other. 
Neither of them was a political idealist or reformer. Neither 
of them had travelled very far ahead of the current standards 
of political morality and the current ideas of political and eco- 
nomic policy. Both of them combined in a typically American 
way a thoroughly realistic attitude towards practical political 
questions with a large infusion of traditional American patriotic 
aspiration. These agreements in their general attitude towards 
public affairs made the chief difference between them all the 
more influential in Mr. Hanna's life and behavior. While 
not a reformer, Mr. McKinley was more sensitive to the press- 
ure and the value of a reforming public opinion; and he was 
more scrupulous in considering whether the end justified the 
means. He had no call to eradicate American political and 
economic abuses, but he did not want his own success to be 
qualified by practices which might look dubious to posterity. 
He succeeded in making Mr. Hanna realize the necessity and 
the value of these better standards, and by so doing stimulated 
in the latter a higher realism, which increased with age. Each 
of the two friends, consequently, owed much to the other, and 
each of them paid his debt. Their friendship was worthy of 
the respect and of the renown which it inspired in their con- 
temporaries. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

THE PANAMA CANAL 

In view of the intimate association between the poHtical 
careers of WilHam McKinley and Mark Hanna, the former's 
death might have been expected to injure the poUtical power 
and prestige of his friend. Nothing of the kind occurred. If 
anything the assassination of President McKinley strength- 
ened the position of Mr. Hanna and made the sources of his 
power flow more abundantly. The interval of two years and 
some months between Mr. McKinley's assassination and Mr. 
Hanna's death constituted the culminating period of the latter's 
political career — the period in which his influence was most 
effective, his activities most varied and wholesome, his per- 
sonal merits most widely understood and appreciated and his 
prospects most flattering. 

The mere fact of Mr. McKinley's assassination reacted in 
Mr. Hanna's favor. There was a general feeling that the 
rancorous abuse of which the dead President had been the 
victim had at least indirectly contributed to the tragedy. 
The public knew that Mr. Hanna had been even more malig- 
nantly and systematically abused than had his friend, and they 
knew better than ever how little he had deserved it. His hold 
on popular confidence was increased by the grief and indigna- 
tion caused by Mr. McKinley's assassination and by the belief 
that the martyred President's mantle had descended on his 
shoulders. The conservative public opinion of the country 
came more than ever to consider Mr. Hanna as its leader and 
representative, and to have faith that his leadership would be 
both politically and economically successful. 

One of the clearest expressions of the change in public sen- 
timent towards Mr. Hanna which had been gradually taking 
place, was given in an address made at a dinner which Mr. 
Hamia offered to the Gridiron Club of Washington in March, 
2 b 3G9 



370 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

1902. The Gridiron Club is composed of the Washington cor- 
respondents of newspapers, scattered all over the country, 
and their usual attitude toward the public men who dine 
with them is far from being reverent or even respectful. Mr. 
Hanna had, however, made himself popular with the news- 
paper correspondents, as he did with every one else who came 
into actual contact with him, and they were glad to bear wit- 
ness to his increasing personal prestige. The following address 
was made by Mr. Raymond Patterson : — 

" Senator Hanna : 

"It is generally understood that the man who gives a dinner is safe 
from the assaults of his guests. Even an Indian or an Ohio Democrat 
would refrain from tomahawking his host, at least until they had finished 
the pie. But as you know, the Gridiron Club is not bound by ordinary 
rules, and we claim the right to kill our mountain lions wherever we find 
them. It becomes my painful duty, therefore, as the representative of 
this club, to impeach you of high crimes and misdemeanors. You, 
sir, have proven yourself the most despicable hyj^ocrite of the century. 
You have betrayed our confidence most shamefully and you have failed 
to live up to your reputation in a way which should cause the blush of 
shame to crimson your brazen cheeks. 

" We cherished in our bosoms a most precious scoundrel and here you 
have developed into a most tawdry saint. You arrived in our midst 
indorsed by popular clamor and by Homer Davenport as a plutocrat 
and a dollar-mark, the vicious tool of wicked trusts, and the embodiment 
of financial arrogance. How have you lived up to this reputation? 
Dare you deny that you have failed to justify the confidence reposed 
in you? You have outraged all decency, let me tell you, by your shame- 
less backslidings toward virtue. Instead of an ilUterate parvenu we 
have been forced to associate with a polished gentleman, and the 
ignorant politician has degenerated into the shrewd statesman. 

" Where is our brutal political leader, our grasping money grabber, 
our stock-jobbing boodler ? What have you done with him ? Are you 
prepared either to produce the body or confess the crime ? How comes 
it that the mere buyer of legislatures, who was supposed to be as voice- 
less in public as the tomb, made his debut before this club with a ready 
wit and a merry humor which have become historic ? How comes it 
that the enemy of the working man is now the chosen instrument for 
the settlement of disputes between capital and labor? Which is 
Jekyll and which is Hyde ? 

" I was delegated to present to the real Mark Hanna a souvenir of 



THE PANAMA CANAL 371 

the feelings of the Gridiron Club, but I scarcely know whether to make a 
presentation to the memory of the reprobate the people were told you 
were or to the real Hanna of to-day, the statesman, the broad-gauged 
man of affairs, the good fellow and our friend. There are in this 
club sixty men, and as slight testimonial of the fact that all of them 
join in this expression of sentiment, the face of every one of them has 
been photographed indehbly on the indestructible copper of this sacred 
gridiron. It is unique, as you will see, but the sentiment behind it is far 
from singular. 

" These sixty faces may recall to you the fact that you have achieved a 
triumph such as comes to but few men. You have destroyed a popular 
myth, and now to-day across the length and breadth of the country, 
Mark Hanna the boodler, Mark Hanna the bullying pohtical boss^ 
Mark Hanna the trickster and the parvenu, has absolutely disappeared 
from the public press. The purity of your hfe, the exquisite good- 
fellowship which we learned so rapidly to recognize, the steadfastness of 
your purposes, the honesty of your methods and above all the fidelity 
to the dead Mcffinley more tender even than to the living President, 
all these qualities have dissipated the black clouds of envy, of malice 
and of partisan venom, and have won for you a peculiar place in the 
hearts of the people. 

"So, sir, it becomes my duty to present to you this emblazoned 
gridiron, bearing on its polished bars the individual portraits of our 
membership, which shall be at once a monument to the dead and gone 
Hanna the people tried so hard to hate, and also it shall be the final 
testimonial of the living Uncle Mark we have so learned to love." 

Another cause contributed to the enhancement of Mr. Hanna's 
political prestige. The death of Mr. McKinley had not appar- 
ently done anything to diminish his influence at the White 
House. He entered at once into very intimate and confidential 
relations with the new President. When two men occupying 
responsible positions and forced by those positions into constant 
association work together smoothly and efficiently, the result 
looks so natural and inevitable that few people stop to consider 
how much easier and more natural a disagreement might have 
been. In the case of Mr. Roosevelt and Mr, Hanna a disagree- 
ment might have been plausibly predicted. In the past they 
had never been closely associated, and each was aware that he 
had been more or less criticised by the other. Each was aware of 
certain fundamental differences of opinion and political outlook. 



372 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

But both were also aware how necessary it was for Republican 
success that the new President and the old organization should 
not fall into a suspicious and hostile attitude one to the other. 
When the new President, the day after his predecessor's 
death, gave his wise and reassuring pledge that he would not 
depart from the policy of the McKinley administration, the 
way was open for a working agreement. Mr. Hanna immedi- 
ately entered the opening. He was always willing to meet 
another man more than halfway, and after Mr. Roosevelt's 
pledge he was not only ready but eager to offer his services 
to the new President. They both had the good sense and the 
good feeling to recognize what the situation demanded and 
both proved capable of acting up to its needs. Each of them 
came to understand that he was dealing with a man who was 
dealing fairly and considerately with him. They became, 
consequently, not only efficient co-workers, but good friends. 
As they knew each other better, they liked each other the more. 
The President was loyal to his promise that during the re- 
mainder of the term he would consider himself as in a sense 
his predecessor's deputy. Mr. Hanna was equally true to his 
promise that the administration should have his loyal support 
and his best advice. With Mr. Roosevelt, as with Mr. McKinley, 
his influence, whatever it amounted to, was not due to friend- 
ship or favor. He was powerful with both men, because he 
was disinterested and because he was really useful, and appar- 
ently he was almost as frequently consulted by one as by the 
other. The private secretary of both the old President and 
the new states that Mr. Hanna's counsel was as influential in 
the White House in 1902 as it had been early in 1901. 

Furthermore, during the long session of 1901-1902 Senator 
Hanna looms up, at least for the pubUc eye, as a much bigger 
figure than ever in the legislative counsels of his country. I 
have already traced the gradual transition from his earlier 
silence in the pubUc debates of the Senate to an active par- 
ticipation in the discussions of at least certain economic ques- 
tions. The ship-subsidy bill first brought him prominently 
into notice as a legislator and debater; but during the long 
session of 1901-1902 his Senatorial activity was far from being 
confined to that one subject. He was throughout that session 



THE PANAMA CANAL 373 

emphatically the most energetic and conspicuous member of 
the Senate. The business man, who not long before had asked 
the indulgence of his colleagues as a tyro in debating, had be- 
come, not of course the best debater in the Senate, but the 
speaker to whom all listened most attentively and whose words 
actually carried most weight. 

He sj^oke during the session of 1901-1902 upon a much wider 
range of public business. It happened to be a very active 
legislative year, in which many important measures were 
enacted, and in which a still larger number received more or 
less consideration. Among the acts passed was one providing 
for the construction of an Isthmian Canal, one continuing in 
force the policy of excluding immigrants from China, one 
providing for civil government in the Philippines, one insti- 
tuting a national system of irrigation, and one founding a De- 
partment of Commerce and Labor. In addition the ship-sub- 
sidy bill was, as we have seen, exhaustively debated and passed 
in the Senate, and the question of Cuban reciprocity received 
some preliminary consideration. Mr. Hanna took no part 
in the debate upon the Instrument of government for the 
Philippines nor in that upon the Irrigation Act; but in the 
discussion of all the other subjects of legislation his participa- 
tion was in all cases important and in two cases absolutely 
decisive. 

This enlargement of the scope of his legislative action is of 
peculiar significance in relation to the development of Mr. 
Hanna's public personality. He entered political life as a 
successful political manager and as a business man — the repre- 
sentative in politics of a business interest. He brought to his 
new task no special equipment for public life. He had never 
held an administrative office. He had never made any special 
study of the political and economic history of his own and other 
countries. He had never been trained to express himself with 
precision and with cumulative effect. He was entirely without 
that legal discipline which, in the majority of American politi- 
cal leaders, is substituted for a sound political and economic 
education. For a long time, consequently, he was dumb, ex- 
cept as the spokesman of his original interest in business ; and 
he was dumb, because he was conscious of his o^vn deficiencies 



374 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND AVORK 

and would not speak, except whereof he knew. But he had an 
alert and open mind. If he could not learn from books, he 
could learn even more from other men and from the mcreasmg 
personal activities and responsibilities. He was gradually 
growing up to the job of being in a way the representative in 
the Senate of a responsible administration. Little by little 
experience of large affairs took the place of prehmmaxy training. 
He be-an to participate in the discussion of other than busi- 
ness questions, because he had gradually come to know his o^ti 
mind, and, still better, to formulate a group of general ideas 
in respect to public policy. _ ^ ^ u 

His increasing participation in the debates is not to be con- 
fused with a gro^ving loquacity or fluency. If on the one hand 
he had no intellectual imagination or interest in ideas for their 
own sake, so, on the other, he had no more facility either with 
words or ideas. He was enterprising and experimental in ac- 
tion but not in thought and in expression. Whatever he said 
was always the result of an actual experience. His ideas were 
his actions, and what he took to be his responsibilities turned 
inside out. When he spoke upon a wider range of public ques- 
tions it meant that he had become in a way an authority on 
those questions-an authority, not in the sense that he knew 
all about them and could discuss them exhaustively and lumi- 
nously but in the sense that he felt himself authorized to speak 
as a matter of personal experience and conviction and of public 

"^""His attitude towards public questions was usually deter- 
mined by a sense of national administrative responsibility. 
Thus during the session of 1901-1902 he argued at some length 
on behalf of a Department of Commerce and Labor, m order that 
the government might be equipped to serve the industry of the 
country as well as its agriculture. Again he argued m favor of 
, the traditional policy of excluding Chinese immigration, but 
against certain proposed amendments to the Exclusion Act 
which would have violated American treaty obligations and 
unnecessarily have injured Chmese susceptibilities. He spoke in 
favor of a proposed agreement with the Pennsylvania Railroad 
Co. providing for the erection of a Union station in Washington 
whose location and design would be worthy of the capital of 



THE PANAMA CANAL 375 

the United States. Finally he earnestly urged the adoption of 
a treaty of commercial reciprocity with Cuba on the ground 
chiefly of moral obligation. This final instance is particularly 
illuminating, because important business interests were opposed 
to the adoption and pressed him not to come out in its favor. 
He denied that any injury would result to American business, 
but he urged that the national moral obligation to promote the 
welfare of Cuba was manifest and valid. It ought to be re- 
deemed, if necessary, even at some expense to American 
business. 

His point of view in relation to all these questions of public 
policy was national. Each one of them involved an obligation 
on the part of the general government either to redeem a 
promise or to promote a genuine national interest; and it is not 
accidental that Senator Hanna was always found speaking and 
voting on this one side. He felt himself responsible for the 
promotion of the national welfare — in so far as it was involved 
in any proposed legislative action. He was not simply a Sena- 
tor from Ohio. He was the leader of the party in complete 
control of the general government; and as the leader of the 
party and an influential member of the Senate, he became the 
representative in Congress of the responsible administration of 
the country. The President found it useful to consult with 
him about legislative affairs more than any other single Senator 
and Congressman. Senator Hanna was in a position to get 
things done. He could actually influence votes. A President 
who wanted to have things done was obliged to lean upon him. 

Any attempt to describe Senator Hanna's position in the 
Senate during this session incurs dangers of exaggeration. His 
power was extraordinary, but it was very delicately balanced. 
As long as the balance was held, he could accomplish great 
things, but even a slight disturbance of the balance might have 
left him relatively uninfluential. Officially he was merely 
junior Senator from Ohio. All the rest was a matter of personal 
prerogative, depending on the confidence which the President, 
certain fellow-Senators, certain Republican leaders, and a cer- 
tain part of the public had in him. If his power had been in 
any way strained or abused, the confidence on which it rested 
would have been shattered. If it had been even proclaimed 



376 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

or admitted, it would have encountered far more opposition. 
Nevertheless it was very real, and in attempting to find an 
analogy for it, one has to go outside American political experi- 
ence. It was compounded of wholly different elements from 
the power exercised by any "Boss." It was compounded of 
somewhat different elements from the power exercised by any 
President or Governor. The analogy which most nearly fits 
Mr. Hanna's position is that of a Prime Minister, who is respon- 
sible to an Executive Chief, while at the same time dependent 
for the success of his administration upon the confidence and 
support of a majority in the Legislature. The power exer- 
cised by Mr. Hanna was coming to resemble in a rough, tenta- 
tive, wholly unofficial way, that of a German Imperial Chan- 
cellor. 

I have reserved until the last the most conspicuous illustra- 
tion of his effective participation in the legislative action of the 
session of 1901-1902. All of Senator Hanna's minor speeches and 
achievements are overshadowed by the speech he made on 
June 5 and 6, 1902, upon the Panama Canal, and by the influence 
which that speech exerted upon the final action of the Senate 
and eventually of the House of Representatives. The intrinsic 
advantages of the Panama over the Nicaragua route were such 
that possibly the former would eventually have been selected 
in any event; but unquestionably the actual adoption of the 
Panama route by the fifty-seventh Congress was due to Mark 
Hanna far more than to any other one man. 

Owing to a series of historical accidents the Nicaraguan 
route had come to be traditionally considered as the American 
route. Partly because American diplomats and promoters 
had been more successful in securing concessions from Nica- 
ragua and Costa Rica and partly because American engineers 
had evinced a partiality for the northern route, the majority 
of American citizens accepted as a matter of course the idea 
that any canal built by the government of the United States 
or its citizens would be situated in Nicaragua. The first Inter- 
oceanic Canal Commission which made an exhaustive investi- 
gation, had reported in 1876 unanimously in favor of a Nica- 
raguan canal; and in all probability had it not been for the 
Clayton-Bulwer Treaty the construction of such a canal would 



THE PANAMA CANAL 377 

have been undertaken at a much earher date either by the gov- 
ernment of the United States or by an American corporation 
under government assistance. 

The beginning in 1881 of the construction of a canal across 
the Isthmus of Panama by a French company put an end tem- 
porarily to the agitation for a canal built and operated under 
American influence. Nothing could be done until the French 
experiment had been tried and its results known. Not until 
the French company went into bankruptcy in 1888 was any 
alternative enterprise considered ; but when the French ex- 
periment did fail, it was inevitable that the Nicaraguan project 
should be revived and pushed with unprecedented vigor. 
Thoughtful Americans became more than ever convinced that 
any interoceanic canal should be controlled ' by this country. 
And apparently a canal controlled by this country would have 
to be built in Nicaragua. The ruins of the French enterprise 
blocked the path across Panama — even if the government of 
the United States or any group of its citizens had desired to 
take it. In February, 1889, Congress passed a bill incorporating 
the Maritime Canal Co., of the United States, which was or- 
ganized a few months later and which raised some $6,000,000 
with which to begin construction. During the next three years 
a good deal of work was accomplished with this money; but 
the panic of 1893 dried up the springs of capital and in that year 
the American company also went into the hands of a receiver. 
It could not resume work without the aid of the government, 
and although a considerable party in Congress was in favor of 
guaranteeing the company's bonds for a large sum, a bill pro- 
viding for such a guarantee never did more than pass the Senate. 
Congress frequently discussed the matter during the next few 
years, and many bills providing for the construction of the 
canal by the nation were considered, but no action was taken. 
All that Congress did during these years was to constitute in 
1897 another Isthmian Canal Commission, headed by Rear 
Admiral John G. Walker, and to appropriate $300,000 for the 
expenses of further investigation. In the meantime the con- 
cession of the Maritime Canal Co. expired and was extended 
for a short period only with difficulty. 

Manifestly, however, the actual construction of the canal 



378 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

could not be much longer delayed. The Spanish-American War 
had given a convincing object lesson of the embarrassments 
to American naval strategy and defence which resulted from 
the possession of two coast lines so remote one from the other. 
The growing commerce of the country with China and South 
America demanded an isthmian waterway. Public opinion 
was almost unanimous that some action be taken; but the 
more cautious among the Republican leaders, including Presi- 
dent McKinley, did not want to act without full information 
and indubitable legal guarantees against future embarrass- 
ments. The appointment of the final Canal Commission was 
the result of this determination. The Commission of 1897 had 
presented a report which unanimously and emphatically de- 
cided in favor of the practicability and desirability of the Nica- 
raguan route. The Senate passed a bill providing for the con- 
struction of a Nicaraguan Canal by the national government ; 
but Speaker Reed prevented it from being adopted by the House. 
The Panama route had a few able advocates, the result being 
that on the last day of the short session of 1898-1899, the Presi- 
dent was authorized to send still another Commission to inves- 
tigate both routes, and an appropriation of $1,000,000 was made 
to pay the expense of the investigation. 

Apparently President McKinley had by this time become 
doubtful whether the country should commit itself irrevocably 
to a Nicaraguan canal. He had listened to the arguments in 
favor of Panama presented by William Nelson Cromwell, the 
legal representative in the United States of the new Panama 
Canal Co., and he had also asked Mr. Hanna to listen to Mr. 
Cromwell's pleading. It was owing to his advice that the Re- 
publican platform of 1900 pledged the party to the construction 
of an isthmian canal rather than a canal specifically situated in 
Nicaragua. In the meanwhile, he was seeking in good faith 
to remove the obstacles preventing the construction of a na- 
tional canal by negotiating with Great Britain for the amend- 
ment of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty. An agreement was 
reached with the English government, but the new treaty was 
rejected by the Senate, and not until late in 1901 was an acceptable 
arrangement consummated with Great Britain — one which 
enabled the United States to construct an isthmian canal on 



THE PANAMA CANAL 379 

fair terms. A large proportion of the members of both Houses 
had wished to go ahead and build a canal without waiting for 
the signature of a new treaty, but fortunately the policy of the 
country was controlled by the wiser half of Congress. The 
final removal of all legal obstacles made it inevitable that some 
decisive action would be taken during the long session of 1901- 
1902. 

Early in January, 1902, a decision by Congress in favor of a 
Nicaraguan canal looked inevitable. The third Canal Com- 
mission, after an exhaustive investigation, had submitted its re- 
port in December, 1900. It recommended the construction of 
a canal along the northern route, because, but only because, 
of the apparent impossibility of buying from the French com- 
pany its property and franchises in Panama at anything like 
a fair price. A canal at Panama would cost about S60,000,000 
less than one farther north, and it would be shorter, have fewer 
locks and slighter curvature. It was to be preferred for en- 
gineering reasons ; but even though more expensive, the Nica- 
raguan canal was entirely practicable, and, considering the 
attitude of the French company, was the better selection. The 
practical effect of this report was to strengthen the hands of the 
friends of a Nicaraguan canal, while it made the directors of 
the French company understand that they must either offer 
reasonable terms or else lose practically the whole French 
investment in Panama. 

The consequence was that after protracted negotiations and 
much backing and filling the French company offered on Jan. 
4, 1902, to sell its property to the United States for $40,000,000, 
which brought the total estimated cost of the Panama 
Canal to a smaller figure than the total estimated cost of the 
Nicaraguan canal. In view of this offer the Commission re- 
versed its former decision and reported on January 18 in favor 
of the adoption of the Panama route. Before this final report 
was submitted, however, the House of Representatives had 
passed a bill, introduced by Mr. Hepburn, authorizing the 
President to proceed with the construction of a canal at Nica- 
ragua, at a cost of $180,000,000 and appropriating $10,000,000 
on account for immediate use. An amendment had been pro- 
posed, leaving the choice of routes to the discretion of the Presi- 



380 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

dent, but it had been rejected by a vote of 120 to 170. The 
House was almost unanimously in favor of this Hepburn Bill. 
As finally passed, there had been 308 votes in its favor against 
only 2 in opposition. 

I have been obliged to tell at some length the foregoing story 
in order to explain the situation which confronted the Senate 
when in January, 1902, it began the consideration of the canal 
problem. With its usual deliberation the Senate decided to 
postpone action until a thorough investigation had been made 
by the Interoceanic Canal Committee. The House had acted 
hastily, and the final recommendation of the Canal Com- 
mission in favor of Panama placed the matter in an entirely 
different light. For two months the Committee on Inter- 
oceanic Canals took testimony, and about the middle of March 
decided by a vote of 7 to 4 to report in favor of the passage of the 
Hepburn Bill unamended. The minority, however, submitted 
a report of its own, in which a strong argument was made in 
favor of the Panama route. Senator Hanna was the instigator 
of this minority report, and thereafter he became the leader 
in the Senate of the pro-Panama party. 

The subject was one which would have naturally aroused 
a lively interest in his mind. The United States was confronted 
with the necessity of deciding what was substantially a great 
business question — the greatest, perhaps, in its history. The 
question ought to be decided one way or the other chiefly on 
business grounds, although the business was chiefly technical 
in its nature. He was familiar from his own experience with 
many of the technical problems which were raised by the com- 
parative advantages and disadvantages of the two routes. As 
he himself said in the Senate: "I have felt an interest in this 
question because it was a practical one. The operation of 
canals was one of the few subjects with which in my business 
life I had become acquainted from experience in all directions. 
When the Panama route was called to my attention by Presi- 
dent McKinley himself, I was asked by him to give it my per- 
sonal attention. He made the further request that I should go 
on the Committee on Interoceanic Canals, that he might have 
the benefit of my experience and advice." Everything con- 
spired, consequently, to fasten his interest on the problem and I 



THE PANAMA CANAL 381 

to make him very competent to deal with it. He had insti- 
tuted an independent and very careful investigation of his own, 
and some time in 1901 reached a conclusion in favor of the 
Panama route. 

Just when Senator Hanna became convinced that the govern- 
ment would be making a grave mistake, in case the Nicaraguan 
route was adopted, I am not sure ; but a visit, which M. 
Philippe Bunau-Varilla made to the United States early in 1901 
had something to do with it. M, Bunau-Varilla had been chief 
engineer in charge of the work undertaken by the new French 
company and was peculiarly qualified both by his standing 
in his profession and by his practical experience in the work 
of construction at Panama to pass an authoritative opinion 
upon the comparative advantages of the two routes. He had 
been induced to come to the United States by a group of Cin- 
cinnati business men, whom he met by accident in Paris during 
the Exposition of 1900, and whom he had convinced of the su- 
periority of Panama. The visit was made for the purpose of 
addressing various commercial associations in the United States 
on behalf of Panama, and wherever he spoke he left behind him 
a trail of converts. Among them was Colonel Myron T. Herrick, 
whose interest was so much aroused that he made a point of 
introducing M. Bunau-Varilla to Senator Hanna. A series of 
interviews followed, which had much to do with Mr. Hanna's 
decision to make a fight on behalf of Panama. This decision 
had been reached by the Senator before the Canal Commission 
finally reported in favor of Panama. 

However much Mr. Hanna may have been influenced by the 
arguments of other men, he did not allow himself to be convinced 
without making an exhaustive investigation of his own — the 
same sort of an investigation which a responsible Minister 
would have made before submitting to a legislative body some 
important plan of legislation. He read all the available books 
on the subject and studied the surveys and plans. He sent for 
a number of men who had been over the ground, and listened 
to what they had to say. He consulted not merely engineers, 
but practical navigators — the captains in charge of large ocean- 
going vessels ; and in this aspect of the inquiry he was helped 
by his personal association with the large American maritime 



382 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

interests. The further he pushed the investigation, the more 
convinced he became. He was deahng for the most part with 
a group of technical facts, the bearing and weight of which his 
practical experience had fully equipped him to estimate ; and 
although he was not an engineer his final decision was in every 
essential respect that of an expert. No better example could 
be given of his ability to qualify himself for an important job 
by careful preparation. In order to make his own decision 
prevail he needed to be an authority, and an authority he be- 
came. 

The fight was begun in the Committee. Throughout the 
hearings, during which several volumes of testimony was taken, 
Mr. Hanna was constantly putting questions to the witnesses, — 
particularly the members of the Canal Commission, — in order 
to bring out their emphatic preference on engineering grounds 
for the Panama route — his object being to prepare the mind of 
the Senators, who might read the testimony, for more light. 
The Committee itself he did not expect to convince. Its 
Chairman was Senator Morgan, long the most determined 
advocate of a Nicaraguan canal, and the majority of its mem- 
bers were already publicly committed in its favor. The real 
fight was made on the floor of the Senate, where Mr. Hanna 
as well as other able Senators were using all their personal in- 
fluence to convert their colleagues to Panama. After a while 
they felt strong enough to take the aggressivfe. Senator Spooner 
offered an amendment to the Hepburn Bill which left nothing 
of the House measure except its enacting clause. It authorized 
the President to purchase the franchises and property of the 
French company for not more than $40,000,000, to secure by 
treaty with Colombia a canal zone and then to proceed with the 
construction of the canal. But he was also authorized to fall 
back on the Nicaraguan route — in case he could not make a 
satisfactory bargain with the French company or Colombia. 
This amendment was the idea and work of Senator Spooner, 
and its submission to the Senate was good tactics. It placed 
the advocates of the Nicaraguan canal where, considering the 
weight of expert testimony, they ought to be placed — that is, 
on the defensive. 

The most important speech in favor of the Spooner amend- 



THE PANAMA CANAL 383 

ment was made by Senator Hanna on June 5 and 6. He had 
carefully prepared the material for this utterance, but not a 
word of its actual text. He had before him two sheets of paper, 
containing twelve or fifteen lines of writing on each ; and the 
majority of these memoranda were not even subject headings. 
They were merely references to the page numbers of reports 
and the like. His secretary sat behind, ready with some fifteen 
books and pamphlets, quotations from which the speaker in- 
tended to use. Backed up by this material he talked to the 
whole Senate just as he had already talked to many Senators 
in person — explaining in a conversational way the reasons 
which made the Panama route more desirable. He spoke on 
the first day for over two hours, until his knees gave out, 
and on the day following he concluded with a somewhat shorter 
additional argument. On June 18, the day before the vote was 
taken, he supplemented his first speech with a brief but very 
cogent plea for the Panama route. 

A reading of Senator Hanna's Panama speech is sufficient 
to account for its remarkable effect. It is at once unmistak- 
ably sincere and really authoritative. With one exception he 
did not and could not advance any novel arguments in favor of 
Panama — although that exception is very important. It con- 
sisted of a large number of letters from the sailing masters 
of ocean-going ships, which he had solicited and obtained, and 
which testified unanimously and emphatically to the supe- 
riority of the shorter and straighter Panama Canal from the 
point of view of a practical navigator. But for the most part 
he could only repeat arguments which had already been ad- 
vanced by engineers. What he did do was to present these 
arguments skilfully, to bring out and emphasize the sub- 
stantially unanimous consensus of engineering authority on 
one side, and to discuss lucidly those phases of the subject 
with which his own experience had made him familiar. Senator 
Hanna's speech, as compared with the many long and dreary 
harangues which had been delivered in the Senate during the 
years of discussion of an interoceanic canal, produces a veri- 
table sensation of candor, relevance, personal knowledge and 
reality. 

The speech obtained an enormous success. His friends all 



384 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

congratulated him, and hundreds of copies were demanded of 
him as soon as it was printed in the Record. Senator Orville 
Piatt, a num of some experience, said that it was the most effec- 
tive address which had been made in the Senate during his 
career. All observers testify that it actually changed votes. 
Up to the time of its delivery the outlook was very dubious. 
Thereafter the prospect of a favorable vote very much improved. 
Senator Frye states that after a lifelong public advocacy of the 
Nicaragua route, Mr. Hanna converted him to its rival. He 
told his friend that he was voting not for a Panama but for a 
Hannama canal. He asserted emphatically that Mr. Hanna, far 
more than any other single man, was responsible for the con- 
version of Congress and the country to Panama. It is almost 
unnecessary to add that the public speech was supplemented 
by vigorous private canvassing. The opinion of every Senator 
was learned, and wherever any chance of conversion existed, 
the argument was pushed home either by Senator Hanna him- 
self or by some assistant, such as Senator Kittridge. The cam- 
paign for a successful vote was planned as carefully as was the 
campaign preceding an important popular election. 

In his "Four Centuries of the Panama Canal" Mr. Willis 
Fletcher Johnson says (p. 128): "The result was generally re- 
garded as doubtful until the vote was actually taken. That 
incident occurred on June 19, 1902, when the measure [the 
Spooner amendment] was adopted by the overwhelming vote 
of sixty -seven to six." This is misleading. The final vote did 
stand sixty-seven to six ; but the comparative strength of the 
two parties had in the meantime been tested by a series of 
preliminary votes on various attempts to emasculate or modify 
the Spooner amendment. When these votes involved a deci- 
sive question, Panama usually won by about forty-two to thirty- 
four. The minority was composed for the most part of Demo- 
crats, but included such Republican Senators as Clapp, Hawley, 
Nelson, Penrose, Thomas Piatt and Quay. On the other hand 
some half a dozen Democrats voted with the majority. The 
overwhelming final vote merely meant that, after being beaten, 
the Senators in favor of Nicaragua did not want to go on record 
against some kind of a canal. But a change of four votes 
would a few minutes earlier have at least temporarily defeated 



THE PANAMA CANAL 385 

the Spooner amendment. The House of Representatives cheer- 
fully agreed to the action of the Senate, and public opinion, which 
a few months before had not seriously considered Panama, 
accepted the decision without question. Neither has any 
doubt since been raised that the sc^lection of the southern route 
saved the government from committing a grave error and 
sustaining a severe loss. 

The incident constituted the most conspicuous single illus- 
tration of Senator Hanna's personal prestige. In this as in 
so many other cases he succeeded in decisively influencing the 
course of public policy because he deserved to succeed. Like 
other Americans he himself had first been predisposed in favor 
of Nicaragua; but his mind was open and his predisposition 
did not prevent him from making a thorough study of the ques- 
tion and reaching a proper conclusion. Once having done so, 
he carefully and deliberately qualified himself to convert 
Congress to his own decision. That was what he intended to 
do and that was what he did. He succeeded in doing it, not 
merely because he had mastered the subject and could speak 
with authority, but because his personality itself inspired con- 
fidence. On no other occasion did he exhibit so clearly and 
effectively in public the quality and the power, which account 
for his influence in private over his friends and associates. His 
Senatorial colleagues had come to trust in his personal good 
faith ; and this trust permitted him to exert a decisive influ- 
ence on a question which, momentous as it was, had not become 
seriously entangled in party politics and did not arouse sec- 
tional or class interests. The comparatively open mind which 
Senators and Congressmen brougiit to the consideration of the 
question offered an opportunity for an earnest and competent 
and trustworthy man to impose his selection on a sufficient 
number of his colleagues. Mark Hanna had made himself 
the man to seize the opportunity, and his country may well 
thank him, not only for what he did, but for being the kind of 
man who could do it. 



2c 



CHAPTER XXV 

THE CIVIC FEDERATION AND THE LABOR PROBLEM 

In the foregoing chapter we have seen that Senator Hanna's 
increasing personal power in and outside of Congress had 
brought with it a higher and broader sense of responsibihty. 
The Hmitations which he had imposed upon his early behavior 
in the Senate were abandoned. He began to interfere in the 
discussion of a far larger range of public questions ; and when- 
ever he interfered he advocated not a sectional or a class, but 
what he believed to be a national, policy. He was no longer 
the representative to the same extent of merely a business inter- 
est in politics. He proposed to represent the whole country, 
and his power could not have increased as it did unless an in- 
creasing number of people had been convinced of the good faith 
of his intentions and his peculiar ability to make them good. 

It is by no means accidental, consequently, that just when 
his personal political power was becoming nationalized in its 
expression, he became vitally interested in the better solution 
of the most critical national economic problem — the problem, 
that is, of the relation between capital and labor. This problem 
was fundamental from Senator Hanna's point of view, because 
all his economic ideas were based upon his personal experience 
as a productive agent and his political experience as the repre- 
sentative of certain productive agencies in American society. 
The equitable distribution and the abundant consumption of 
the economic product were supposed to take care of themselves 
— provided the productive agencies could be made to work effi- 
ciently, actively and harmoniously. He had in his own opinion 
contributed effectively to their active and efficient operation 
by helping to protect them against injurious political agitation; 
but the plain fact was that they did not work harmoniously. 
Capital and labor were in a condition of more or less constant 
warfare ; and this warfare diminished the efficiency of the pro 

386 



( 



THE CIVIC FEDERATION AND THE LABOR PROBLEM 387 

ductive organization and constituted a threat to political secur- 
ity and social integrity. The temporary subsidence of the 
agitation against business only brought into sharper relief this 
fundamental discrepancy in his whole scheme of American eco- 
nomic salvation. 

He had, moreover, other and more personal reasons to be 
interested in the warfare between capital and labor. The one 
serious dispute in which he had been engaged with his own 
employees had made an indelible impression on him. The 
bloodshed, the violence and the resulting spirit of suspicion 
and hatred seemed to him as unnecessary as it was deplorable 
and repellent to the American tradition of fair dealing among 
individuals and classes. The experience had profoundly in- 
fluenced his subsequent attitude towards his own employees. 
It was at the root of his determination to keep personally in 
touch with them, so that he could know and understand their 
grievances and so that they could actually see his good faith in his 
eyes and in his manner as well as in his deeds. In spite, however, 
of his fair and generous treatment of his employees and of their 
loyalty towards him, he had been denounced as a labor-crusher ; 
and this had been done apparently for no better reason than 
that, as a successful business man, he must have oppressed his 
men. He answered the attack vigorously and convincingly; 
but the ominous cloud which had descended upon his political 
career merely because he had been a large employer of labor 
forced upon his attention the very practical question: Why 
should he have been charged with being a labor-crusher when 
there was not the slightest evidence that he had been anything 
but very fair and generous in his treatment of his employees ? 

He sincerely believed that the policy which he advocated 
of unrestrained business stimulation and expansion was as bene- 
ficial to the wage-earner as it was to the employer. Prosperity 
meant as much as anything else the full dinner-pail. Without 
business activity and the confident investment by capitalists 
in business enterprises, laborers' wages could not increase. 
Unless labor was efficient and steady, the economic value of 
capital was very much impaired. All sorts of arguments could 
be used to prove the identity of the interests of employer and 
employee "in the long run"; but the fact remained that the 



388 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

two always had quarrelled about the division of the product 
and were still quarelling. As a severely practical political 
economist Mr. Hanna could not be satisfied with results ''in 
the long run." Big strikes, particularly about wages, were 
very embarrassing to a political leader who was trying to con- 
vince the mass of the people that they were bound to get their 
full share of the fruits of prosperity. If his political system 
was to prevail, the ultimate identity of interests must somehow 
be made more immediate ; and it became in a sense his duty to 
make it immediately effective. As a joint result, consequently, 
of his politico-economic system and his increasing personal 
prominence and responsibility, he was being driven to take an 
active interest in the settlement of labor disputes ; and during 
1901 it so happened that an instrument was placed in his hand 
which enabled him to give systematic practical expression to 
this interest. 

In 1893 there had been organized in Chicago a Civic Federa- 
tion, the purpose of which was to gather together people of all 
classes and interests for the purpose of investigating and dis- 
cussing various questions of public policy. One of its chief 
objects was to bring to the investigation and discussion of these 
questions contributions from men who were dealing with them 
in a very practical way and from radically different points of 
view. The idea met with success, and as the conferences 
increased in size the Federation found imperceptibly its work 
and its membership becoming more than local. It had en- 
gineered conferences on combinations and trusts and on the 
reform of primaries, to which people from all over the country 
were invited; and finally in June, 1900, it changed its name to 
the National Civic Federation. Senator Hanna's attention 
had been called to the organization before and during the cam- 
paign of 1900. The Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Lyman G. 
Gage, was an honorary President of the Federation and took 
a lively interest in its work and welfare. He introduced its 
Secretary, Mr. Ralph M. Easley, to President McKinley and 
Senator Hanna with the express object of having the purposes 
of the Federation explained to them. Mr. Hanna was not, 
however, at that juncture likely to be interested in a discussion 
club — no matter how intelligently conducted. The campaign 



THE CIVIC FEDERATION AND THE LABOR PROBLEM 389 

was ahead of him. Plis attention was fastened on a little voting 
club — called the Electoral College. So the Secretary failed to 
arouse his interest, and the Federation probably looked to him 
merely like a body of conversational reformers. 

During the following summer the strike among the anthra- 
cite coal miners raised the labor question in an acute form, and 
that question became the subject of first conference of the Fed- 
eration as a national body. An Industrial Arbitration Depart- 
ment was formed, which subsequently assumed the better name 
of the Department of Conciliation and Arbitration. Little by 
little this department waxed in importance. Its work and the 
classes of men interested in it broadened. Besides many promi- 
nent business men, a number of even more prominent labor 
leaders joined the Federation and became active in the Concilia- 
tion Department. Mr. Samuel Gompers, President of the 
American Federation of Labor, was a member of the Executive 
Council. John Mitchell, President of the United Mine Workers 
of America, and Dan J. Keefe, President of the International 
Longshoremen, Marine and Transport Workers' Association, 
were closely associated with the work. The department had 
quickly grown to be a really efficient agency for the better asso- 
ciation of business men with union leaders and economic ex- 
perts. 

In December, 1900, an increase of the arbitration committee 
was considered desirable. Mr. Easley asked Dan J. Keefe 
what employers on the Lakes his union dealt with largely, and 
found fair in their general attitude and behavior. He men- 
tioned several, but added that Daniel R. Hanna, Senator 
Hanna's son and a member of the firm of M. A. Hanna & Co., 
was the fairest of them all. The Secretary shied away from 
the suggestion. He feared that any prominent association of 
the name of Hanna with the Federation would arouse political 
prejudices and hurt its proper work. The next day the Arbitra- 
tion Committee met, with Mr. A. C. Bartlett in the chair. When 
the question of increasing the membership of the committee 
came up, Mr. Easley stated with reluctance that the name of 
Daniel R. Hanna, Chairman of the Dock Managers' Associa- 
tion, had been suggested, and awaited an explosion. But no ex- 
plosion followed. George Shelling, a labor union man, a cooper 



390 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

by trade and a Commissioner of Labor under former Governor 
Altgeld of Illinois, rose and said: "There is no more radical 
Democrat on this committee than I am. I move that Daniel 
R. Hanna be made a member of it. I know from what Keefe 
said he is all right." The invitation to join the Committee was 
issued and accepted. The firm of M. A. Hanna & Co. had 
remained true to its traditional policy of dealing fairly and 
generously with its employees, and for that reason one of the 
partners was naturally suggested as a member of a general 
committee on conciliation and arbitration. 

Early in 1901 the Industrial Department found itself very 
much in need of Senator Hanna's help in order to deal with a 
difficult dispute in the anthracite coal trade. We have already 
remarked that during the campaign of 1900 Mr. Hanna used 
his influence with the coal operators to settle a strike which was 
hurting the chances of Republican success. An agreement had 
been made which expired on March 31, 1901, but this agreement 
was a temporary compromise which satisfied neither side. The 
Union had voted to strike on April 1, unless a more satisfactory 
arrangement could be made with its employers. The Concilia- 
tion Committee could not get in touch with the operators in 
order to make an attempt at adjustment; and remembering 
Senator Hanna's contribution to the former agreement, they 
decided to ask his assistance. They were warned that the Sena- 
tor's interest in the matter might not be as keen as it was during 
the campaign, but they decided to take the chance. Mr. D. R. 
Hanna arranged a meeting with his father. Senator Hanna 
responded immediately. He went to New York, had a confer- 
ence with Messrs. Mitchell and Keefe and decided to place the 
matter before Mr. J. P. Morgan. The latter turned it over to 
President Thomas of the Erie Railroad. Senator Hanna ar- 
ranged a meeting between Mr. Thomas and Mitchell, and as a 
result of this conference, an agreement was reached which was 
to run until April 1, 1902. 

During his visit to New York on this business, the plans and 
purposes of the Conciliation Committee of the Civic Federation 
were explained to Senator Hanna and immediately aroused his 
interest. Its program was based upon the idea that the great 
majority of strikes might be averted, provided conferences 



THE CIVIC FEDERATION AND THE LABOR PROBLEM 391 

could be arranged, grievances and demands fully discussed and 
a fair compromise embodied in some kind of a trade agreement. 
Such a program could not but appeal to the Senator. They 
were proposing to adapt to a larger field the methods of personal 
intercourse, which he had used in his own business and which 
had proved to be thoroughly practicable. Moreover, he could 
see an opportunity for effective work on his own part. The 
basis of his power was personal confidence and influence. Could 
not his own influence be effectively used in order to bring about 
these necessary and fruitful conferences between employer and 
employee? Later, after he had gone to Cleveland, Messrs. 
Mitchell and Keefe followed him thither, and spent some little 
time in explaining more in detail the ideas and hopes of the 
Committee. If there had been any hesitation left in the Sena- 
tor's mind, it vanished. He not only approved, but would 
actively and cordially cooperate. "Boys," he said, "this looks 
right to me. I'll do anything you want." 

During the summer of 1901 a strike occurred in some of the 
plants of the newly organized United States Steel Corporation. 
The dispute was serious, and involved both fundamental issues 
and a large number of men. The Conciliation Committee of 
the Civic Federation made several attempts to secure confer- 
ences and bring about an agreement. Mr. Hanna was in- 
tensely interested. Throughout the summer the strike and the 
means taken to end it bulked larger than any single subject in 
his correspondence. After many failures a conference was 
finally arranged between President Schwab and his associates 
and a labor committee, consisting of Gompers, Mitchell, Sar- 
geant and others, which reached an agreement. Mr. Hanna 
had much to do with the arrangements for this decisive consul- 
tation, and its successful result convinced him, finally, that 
the Committee of the Federation was working with immediately 
fruitful methods. During the fall he publicly associated him- 
self with the work. 

As soon as Senator Hanna publicly identified himself with the 
Federation and its work, certain influential members of it, 
particularly Messrs. Mitchell and Keefe, proposed to make him 
Chairman of the Industrial Department. The suggestion 
provoked lively opposition. Many members of the association 



m 



392 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

were by way of being reformers, and did not approve of ]\Ir. 
Hanna's political purposes or methods. They and others who 
personally liked the Senator were afraid that the Federation 
would be injured by the political prominence of the proposed 
Chairman, and would begin to look like an annex to the Repul)- 
lican National Committee. The late Bishop Potter, who had 
recently joined the Federation, was particularly vigorous in his 
opposition. Nevertheless, Mr. Haima was chosen, and no 
injurious results to the Federation followed. Public opinion 
was coming to place a fairer estimate on Mr. Hanna's motives. 
The tendency of editorial comment was to consider the Senator 
sincere and disinterested in assuming responsibility for the most 
important branch of the Federation's work. In the end oppo- 
nents, such as the late Bishop Potter, admitted their error. 
He said : "Mr. Hanna has grown up to the size of the job." 

On Dec. 16 and 17, 1901, the second National Confer- 
ence of the Federation was held in the rooms of the Board of 
Trade and Transportation in New York. It was addressed 
by a number of the most prominent and representative union 
officials in the country, and by the heads of a number of large 
corporations and employers' associations. In all of these 
speeches the program of the Federation was explicitly and cor- 
dially approved. Mr. Hanna himself made a short speech, 
proclaiming his confidence in organized labor, his complete 
approval of the methods of the Federation, and his readiness 
to place his own services at the disposal of the Industrial De- 
partment. The meeting was a great success, and increased 
the prestige of the Federation. Public comment was wide- 
spread, and approved almost without a dissenting voice. Sena- 
tor Hanna was made Chairman of the Executive Committee, 
Samuel Gompers, first Vice-Chairman, Oscar Straus, second 
Vice-Chairman, Charles A. Moore, Treasurer, and Ralph M. 
Easley, Secretary. The membership of the general committee 
was enlarged to forty, one-third of whom represented the unions, 
another third the employers and their associations and a final 
third the "general public." Out of this general committee 
were to be selected special committees to help in the adjustment 
of disputes in particular trades. 

From the moment this committee was organized under its 



THE CIVIC FEDERATION AND THE LABOR PROBLEM 393 

new leadership, it was involved in an effort to avoid the most 
serious and dangerous American industrial dispute since the 
Pullman strike of 1894 — viz. a disagreement between the anthra- 
cite coal operators and the union of their employees, the United 
Mine Workers of America, As we have seen. Senator Hanna 
had already been personally interested in this quarrel. He had 
temporarily settled the strike of 1900, and had helped to pre- 
vent a strike from taking place in the spring of 1901. But the 
arrangement was limited to a year, and it was not to be made 
permanent, unless the Union proved to the operators that it 
could control its members. In October, 1901, Mr. Mitchell and 
his district presidents had gone to New York in order to have 
an interview with President Thomas of the Erie Road. They 
wanted to discuss mutual grievances, and pave the way for a 
general conference at a later date. After waiting for several 
weeks, the committee was finally denied even a hearing by Mr, 
Thomas and were made indignant by being most effectually 
snubbed. Consequently, Mr. Hanna was called up in Cleveland 
and after learning the facts suggested an interview between 
Secretary Easley of the Industrial Committee and Mr. Thomas, 
which developed nothing but the expression of a determination 
on the part of Mr. Thomas and the other operators not to have 
anything to do with the Union. It was a question, they de- 
clared, whether they or the Union should control their business. 
Such was the situation at the time of the National Conference 
of the Federation. 

While in New York Senator Hanna investigated the difficulty 
and found the operators unanimous and determined in their 
resolution to have nothing to do with the Union and fully pre- 
pared, if necessary, to accept the consequences of a fight to the 
finish. Two months later, although he could not secure a con- 
ference between the Union leaders and the operators, he did 
arrange a meeting between Mr. Mitchell and Mr. J. P. Morgan. 
The interview was inconclusive. Mr. Morgan was friendly 
and courteous. He promised, in case the matter ever reached 
him, to do "what was right," but he had not the power and he 
evidently had not the disposition to interfere at that stage of the 
controversy. Hence up to the time of the convention of the 
miners at Shamokin on March 18, every attempt at conciliation 



394 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

made by Mr. Hanna and his association was thwarted by the 
attitude of the operators — which was dictated by a settled in- 
tention of ignoring the Union and breaking it. They did not 
want a strike. Apparently they believed that the miners would 
not carry hostilities that far. But the terms on 'which a strike 
was to be avoided were practically unconditional surrender on 
the part of the Union. 

At the miner's convention Mr. Mitchell with difficulty pre- 
vented his followers from voting unequivocally for a strike. 
Finally it did declare for a suspension of work but upon a date 
to be decided by the district officers. On March 24, Mr. Mitchell 
telegraphed to Senator Hanna asking him, as Chairman of the 
Industrial Department of the Federation, to intervene on behalf 
of some settlement. A meeting was finally arranged between 
the miners, a committee of the operators, consisting of Presi- 
dents Baer, Truesdale, Thomas and Olyphant and the concilia- 
tion committee. At this conference the discussion was ex- 
tremely bitter and the only result was a postponement of the 
threatened strike for thirty days from April 1, the operators 
promising in the meantime not to mine any more than the 
normal amount of coal. 

Late in April another conference was held, the general tone 
of which was much more promising than that of the first inter- 
view. Both sides were still uncompromising, but an agreement 
was reached to continue the conference a few days later — the 
conferees being a committee of three operators and three rep- 
resentatives of the miners. This was the kind of a meeting 
which the operators had refused in the beginning. They even 
allowed Mr. Mitchell to attend the final conference, a proceed- 
ing to which they had formerly objected, because he was 
not one of their employees, but was a bituminous coal miner. 
They were beginning to understand that the national officers 
of a union may well be more experienced and reasonable men 
than the local officers. 

The Committee of the Federation expected that a settlement 
would be reached at the new conference, and the disappoint- 
ment was great when, on Wednesday afternoon, April 30, Mr. 
Mitchell in Reading telephoned to Mr. Hanna in Washington 
and reported a disagreement. The Senator refused to call the 



I 



THE CIVIC FEDERATION AND THE LABOR PROBLEM 395 

Committee to receive such a report and during the next few days 
he exerted all his personal influence to prevent the strike. Says 
Mr. Easley in an article in the Independent, March 3, 1904 : 
"He went back of the presidents of the roads and undertook 
to bring pressure on the stockholders, getting a committee of 
them together in one of the large banks and .talking with them 
over the telephone for two hours. He cabled to important 
interests in Europe. On the labor side he urged Mr. Mitchell 
to name the lowest possible figure he would recommend his 
followers to accept, which was a five per cent increase (they 
were asking for twenty per cent), and this information was con- 
veyed to the presidents of the roads ; but they spurned the 
suggestion — so certain were they that the men would not actu- 
ally strike. Senator Hanna, when informed of the results of 
this suggestion, said disgustedly, 'Well! they will not only 
strike, but they will get ten per cent increase before they 
settle.' " They were finally awarded ten per cent and in addi- 
tion a sliding scale, which amounted in some instances to seven- 
teen per cent. 

On May 17, the miners again met in convention, this time at 
Hazleton ; and Mr. Mitchell made a great effort to secure the 
acceptance of an appeal which had been telegraphed to the 
convention by the Conciliation Committee of the Federation. 
This appeal proposed that a strike be postponed, until an im- 
partial committee be selected to make a full investigation of the 
condition of the laborers in the mines, their wages, hours of 
employment, and all other matters which form the subject of 
their complaints. But the effort failed. The delegates had 
been instructed to vote for a strike, and it was ordered by a vote 
of 461 to 439. Thus all attempts at conciHation or delay proved 
abortive, chiefly because the operators did not believe that a 
strike would actually take place. When it did take place they 
were inclined to blame the Civic Federation for the result and 
to accuse it of meddling mischievously in other people's busi- 
ness. 

As soon as he heard that some of the operators had been criti- 
cising the Federation, Senator Hanna sent the following mes- 
sage to them : "You tell them that if I hear any more of that 
kind of talk I will go to New York, hire Carnegie Hall, and give 



396 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

them something to talk about." At another time when he was 
informed that certain operators had attributed his interest in 
the matter to the beneficial effect of his interference on a sup- 
posed Presidential boom, he replied: "Go and tell the oper- 
ators that if they will arbitrate their differences with the miners, 
I will make an affidavit that I will not only refuse to accept the 
nomination for the Presidency if tendered to me, but, if elected, 
I will refuse to qualify." 

For many weeks after the strike was called, Mr. Hanna and 
his associates on the Committee were obliged to concentrate 
their forces upon beating off an attack from another quarter 
rather than upon the settlement of the strike itself. Some of 
the unionists were seriously advocating the idea of calling out 
the bituminous coal miners on a sympathetic strike, in spite 
of the fact that these miners were working under a satisfactory 
unexpired agreement with their owm employers. Such a war 
measure would have been almost fatal to the whole program of 
the Federation, which proposed to bring about trade agreements 
by means of collective bargaining. If such bargains were not 
kept, there could be slight hope of comparative industrial peace 
along these lines. No effort was spared, consequently, to pre- 
vent the calling of the sympathetic strike. For six weelcs hard 
and systematic missionary work was carried on throughout the 
coal regions, both bituminous and anthracite, to prevent what 
was regarded by all friends of the Federation as a suicidal act ; 
and in this work they were assisted by every labor leader on the 
Committee. They were successful. The convention of the 
bituminous miners held at Indianapolis on July 17 voted against 
a sympathetic strike, and their fidelity to their contract under 
such a severe pressure made, as well it might, a deep and lasting 
impression on Senator Hanna. 

In his speech of Aug. 9, 1902, delivered at Chatauqua, hea 
said : — 

" If there ever was a situation which would tempt men of any class toe, 
violate an agreement — on the one side one hundred and fifty thousandf^ 
idle men with hundreds of thousands of women and children depending 
upon them for their daily bread, approaching the verge of starva- 
tion, seeing, or beUe\ang they saw, the only remedy which would force 
their employers to a consideration of what they thought their rightfu 



THE CIVIC FEDERATION AND THE LABOR PROBLEM 397 

claim would be through a strike ; and on the other hand their solemn 
promise, given only by word of mouth to their employers, that they 
would mine coal for the year 1902 at a fixed price — if there ever was 
a test that could possibly solve that question, there it was. It is one 
of the proudest moments of my life, that I can state from this rostrum to 
such an audience as this, that the men stood by their word. [Great 
applause.] Ay, unanimously, when the matter came before the con- 
vention, they declined to sign for the strike. I say it is a proud moment 
of my life, because it is a ray of light that comes to us who are 
working honestly in this field of labor — an encouragement which, 
had it been prophesied six months ago, would have been said to be 
impossible." 

After the threat of a sympathetic strike had been averted, 
attempts were made to find some acceptable basis of settlement! 
I cannot trace the course of these negotiations in detail ; but 
the plan, which was gaining ground, looked in the direction of 
submitting the whole dispute to the arbitration of a representa- 
tive expert commission with full power and opportunity to make 
a careful investigation of the facts. In the meantime the sum- 
mer had passed, and winter was near at hand. The coal-bins 
were empty. Public opinion was beginning to be alarmed at 
the prospect of the suffering which would result from an indefi- 
nite prolongation of the strike. The idea began to be ex- 
pressed that industrial disputes should not be allowed to place 
the public welfare in such jeopardy. On September 27, Presi- 
dent Roosevelt wrote to Mr. Hanna : "What gives me greatest 
concern at the moment is the coal famine. Of course we have 
nothing whatever to do with this coal strike and no earthly 
responsibility for it. But the public at large will tend to visit 
on our heads responsibility for the shortage in coal, precisely as 
Kansas and Nebraska visited upon our heads their failure to raise 
good crops in the arid belt eight, ten or a dozen years ago. I 
do not see what I can do, and I know the coal operators are 
especially distrustful of anything which they regard as in the 
Inature of political interference. But I do most earnestly feel 
jthat from every consideration of public policy and good morals, 
Ithey should make some slight concession." 

Two days later Senator Hanna replied from Cleveland, as 
lollows : — 



398 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

"My dear Mr. President: — 

" I am in receipt of yours of the 27th inst. and reply that I share with 
you the anxiety in regard to the coal situation. After leaving Oyster 
Bay, I spent the balance of the week in New York raising money for 
the Congressional Committee and trying to see what more could be 
done with the strike. Confidentially, I saw Mr. Morgan and I also 
saw Mr. Mitchell (the public knows nothing about that). I got 
from Mr. Morgan a proposition as to what he would do in the matter 
and I got Mitchell to agree to accept it — if the operators would abide 
by the decision. I really felt encouraged to think that 1 was about to 
accomplish a settlement. I went to Philadelphia and saw Mr. Baer and 
to my surprise he absolutely refused to entertain it. You can see 
how determined they are. It looks as if it was only to be settled 
when the miners are starved to it, and that may be weeks ahead as 
they are getting abundant supplies from their fellow-workmen all over 
the country. I am not unmindful of the importance of this coal situa- 
tion and will not miss an opportunity to help if I can, but the position 
of the operators from the beginning has put all efforts of mine in a 
false light before the public, so I am only able to hold the confidence 
of the men and serve them if I can." 

The foregoing letter of Senator Hanna's was received in 
Washington on September 30, and it may have had something 
to do with the action immediately taken by the President — • 
asking the operators to meet Mr. Mitchell in a conference at I 
the White House. On October 2, Mr. Hanna telegraphed toi 
the President wishing him every success in his undertaking ; but I 
success did not follow. The obstinacy of the operators onlyy 
increased with every effort to break it down. On October 3^ 
the President wrote the following letter : — 

" My dear Senator Hanna : — 

" Well ! I have tried and failed. I feel downhearted over the result,! 
both because of the great misery ensuing for the mass of our people, andi 
because the attitude of the operators will beyond a doubt double the 
burden on us, who stand between them and socialistic action. But I 
am glad I tried anyhow. I should have hated to feel that I had failed 
to make any effort. What my next move will be I cannot yet say. 1 
feel most strongly that the attitude of the operators is one which ac-( 
centuates the need of the government having some power to supervision 
and regulation over such corporations. I would like to make a fairljl 
radical experiment on the anthracite coal business to start with. 



THE CIVIC FEDERATION AND THE LABOR PROBLEM 399 

"At the meeting to-day the operators assumed a fairly hopeless 
attitude. None of them appeared to such advantage as Mitchell, whom 
most of them denounced with such violence and rancor that I felt he 
did very well to keep his temper. Between times they insulted me for 
not preserving order (evidently ignoring such a trifling detail as the 
United States Constitution) and attacked Knox for not having brought 
Buit against the miners' union, as violating the Sherman Anti-Trust 
Law. You have probably seen my statement and Mitchell's proposi- 
tion. I regarded the latter as imminently fair and reasonable. Now it is 
over I may mention that if the operators had acceded to it, I intended to 
put you on the commission or board of arbitration. But the operators 
declined to accede to the proposition or to make any proposition that 
amounted to anything in return ; and as I say I must now think very 
seriously of what the next move shall be. A coal famine in the winter is 
an ugly thing, and I fear we shall see terrible suffering and grave 
disaster." 

The idea of a coal arbitration commission, once having been 
launched, found such support from public opinion that even >. 
the operators had to yield. During the negotiations which 
ensued, looking towards the appointment of the Commission 
and the return of the miners to work pending its report, Presi- 
dent Roosevelt constantly consulted Mr. Hanna and the part 
which the latter played towards the end is indicated by the 
following letter : — 

" Cleveland, Ohio, Oct. 15, 1902. 
" My deae Mr. President : — 

"I talked with Mitchell on the 'phone' yesterday, after my conver- 
sation with you, and I think he feels satisfied with the assurances given 
him. although, of course,^ he appreciates the unfairness in the proposition 
of the operators in not naming an experienced miner as a member of 
the Commission. At his request I sent him a telegram urging the 
acceptance of the proposition and giving him the assurance that the men 
could depend on absolute fairness at your hands. This, of course, was 
to show to influential men among the miners, for whatever eflfect my 
influence would have among them. I sincerely hope it will end the 
strike, and your interest in the matter will be appreciated." 

j It did end the strike, and the correspondence between the 
President and Senator over this critical matter may be closed 
with the following letter from the President : — 



400 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

"White House, Washington, Oct. 16, 1902. 
"My dear Senator: — 

"Late last night when it became evident that we were going to get a 
Commission which would be accepted by both sides, I remarked, ' Well, 
Uncle Mark's work has borne fruit,' and everybody said, 'Yes.' 
The solution came because so many of us have for so long hammered at 
the matter until at last things got into shape which made the present 
outcome possible. I hardly suppose the miners will go back on Mitchell. 
If they do, they put themselves wholly in the wrong. I earnestly hope 
you are now in good shape physically." 

While not attempting to tell the whole story of the anthracite 
coal strike, I have for several reasons dwelt in detail upon 
Senator Hanna's relation to it. The public scarcely realized 
at the time the amount of hard work which he devoted to the 
business, and the extent to which, as President Roosevelt's last 
letter indicates, he contributed to the settlement. The in- 
cident also provides an excellent illustration of the methods 
and policy pursued by the Conciliation Committee of the Civic 
Federation — an illustration which loses nothing because of the 
failure of Mr. Hanna's own efforts to effect a settlement. The 
experience convinced him that the Federation was working 
along the right lines, and that its unaided exertions in the pres- 
ent instance had proved abortive, chiefly because the operators 
had wofully misjudged the situation. They had underesti- 
mated the will and the ability of the Union to fight and to resist ; 
and they had failed to anticipate that, if the Union did resist, 
their own position on the approach of winter and in the face of 
public opinion would become untenable. 

The anthracite coal strike is one of the very few industrial ' 
disputes in which Senator Hanna personally participated and 
in which he failed to effect a settlement. Up to November, 1903, 
about a hundred disagreements were amicably adjusted by the 
Conciliation Committee; and their good offices failed in only 
eighteen cases. Mr. Hanna's services were constantly at the ) 
call of the Committee. He took part in many important i 
negotiations and he contributed liberally to expenses. All 
his associates testify that he was absorbed heart and soul in the 
work, and that it was coming to occupy as much of his time and 
attention as was his political career. 



THE CIVIC FEDERATION AND THE LABOR PROBLEM 401 

A couple of instances of his successful interference in these 
disputes must suffice. For instance, there was a disagreement 
between the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad and 
its employees, which had been carried so far that the men were 
about to strike. The officers of the road would not consent 
to an interview with the officers of the Brotherhood, because 
the latter were not their own employees. The men appealed 
to the Committee of the Federation, and Senator Hanna was 
called up at Washington by the Secretary of the Committee. 
He inquired as to the real merits of the dispute and asked par- 
ticularly whether "the boys were right." The next day E. E. 
Clark, Grand Chief Conductor of the Order of Railway Con- 
ductors, went over to Washington to state their case, and after 
hearing it Senator Hanna telephoned to Mr. J. P. Morgan and 
arranged an interview between the banker and the union 
leader. As a result of the meeting the strike was averted, and 
the incident is said to have resulted in a change in the manage- 
ment of the road. 

In the heat of his last campaign in Ohio, when he was a can- 
didate for reelection to the Senate, and when he was over- 
worked and in bad health, he responded with similar celerity 
and success to another demand made upon him. Mr. William 
D. Mahon, President of the Amalgamated Association of Street 
1 Railway Employees, came to the Committee and reported a 
: disagreement between the Public Service Corporation of New 
Jersey and its employees. The officials of the Corporation 
; refused to see him, and unless he could meet them a strike was 
bound to follow, because hard feeling had been aroused and the 
men could no longer be restrained. Senator Hanna was notified 
' of the situation by telegraph. The President of the Public 
, Service Corporation was a fellow-Senator — Mr. Dryden ; and 
Mr. Hanna contrived a conference between him and Mr. Mahon, 
'whereby the strike was prevented. In both of these instances 
[the success of the Committee was due chiefly to the personal 
i influence of the Chairman. The men responsible for the di- 
rection of large corporations could not afford to disregard 
the suggestions of a man to whom they owed so much. Even 
iin those cases which were managed by [the Committee with- 
l^out Mr. Hanna's help, his prestige was behind it and often 



11'^ 



402 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

enabled it to obtain a hearing and carry on its work of con- 
ciliation. 

The accusation of the operators that Mr. Hanna's interest 
in the settlement of labor disputes was due to an ambitious 
politician's desire for personal popularity was frequently re- 
peated ; but as soon as a man had once heard Mr. Hanna talk 
about his plans and expectations they became convinced of his 
disinterestedness and sincerity. Mr. Ralph M. Easley states 
that an interview with Mr. Hanna was usually sufficient to 
convert not merely lukewarm and mildly antagonistic people, 
but radical and suspicious unionists and strong personal oppo- 
nents. When an attempt was made to organize a local con- 
ciliation committee in Chicago, Judge Murray F. Tully, an 
able and influential Democrat, was invited to cooperate. Al- 
though he believed in the arbitration of labor disputes, he re- 
fused, because the Civic Federation looked to him merely as an 
annex to Mr. Hanna's Republican organization. He was, 
however, persuaded to attend a public meeting and hear Mr. 
Hanna and Mr. Mitchell talk. After the end of the Senator's 
speech, Judge Tully arose and said: "Mr. Chairman, I came 
to this meeting deeply prejudiced against the whole idea. I 
will be frank. I was against it because I deemed Senator 
Hanna to be nothing but a politician, and I did not think it was 
a good thing to have him at the head of the local federation. 
But I have heard him and I am with you." 

From the foregoing account the Industrial Department of the 
Civic Federation may appear to have been merely a vessel 
wherein Senator Hanna's personal prestige was converted into 
a soothing industrial balm. But such a sneer would be very 
unjust both to Mr. Hanna and to the Federation. Undoubtedly 
the temporary success of the Committee was largely due to 
Mr. Hanna's personal influence with the heads of corporations, 
and the importance of this branch of the work of the Federation 
has since his death very much diminished. The program of the 
association was nevertheless based upon a sound analysis of the^ 
immediate cause of the majority of strikes, and it specified a: 
practicable method of averting them. Strikes can usually be< 
avoided, in case some means exists of bringing the two dispu- 
tants together for the purpose of a full discussion of grievances, 



/ 



THE CIVIC FEDERATION AND THE LABOR PROBLEM 403 

demands and differences of opinion. But conferences of this 
kind implied in practice the existence of some form of association 
among the employees and their representation by influential 
leaders. It implied as the result of a successful conference some 
sort of an agreement defining the terms of employment for a 
specified period ; and it implied also the recognition of a set 
of rules which would help to determine the justice of the con- 
flicting demands of the economic litigants. It implied, in short, 
the organization of both employers and employees, a definite 
theory of the economic relations between them and of the social 
and economic issues involved in their disputes. Like every ser- 
viceable piece of practical machinery its successful working 
embodied a creed, and it could not make any very permanent 
conquests, until that creed was defined and somewhat generally 
accepted. 

Senator Hanna did not seem to be the man to give an explicit 
and persuasive expression to such a creed. He was not a stu- 
dent of economics. He had no knowledge of the history of 
industrial conflicts in other countries and other times. His 
general economic point of view was that of an extreme individu- 
alist who wanted public interference in business confined to the 
encouragement of private and class interests. Nevertheless, the 
desirable creed obtained a rough but very effective popular 
expression at his hands, and it did so because in his own life 
he had always lived up to the creed which he explained and 
advocated. The wholesome aspect of all his thinking was the 
close, the inseparable relation between it and his own personal 
experience. In so far as his business and political life had re- 
stricted his personal experience, his theories were correspondingly 
partial and inadequate. But in all the human aspects of busi- 
ness his personal experience had been large and edifying ; and 
the thought in which it was reflected became luminous as well 
as sincere. 

The ideas contained in his capital and labor speeches of 1902 
and 1903 had for years been lurking in his mind. They had 
received occasional and very partial expression in his conversa- 
tion and letters. But no immediate practical exigency had 
arisen which compelled them to overflow, and the only refer- 
ences to the labor question in his earlier speeches had been 



i 



404 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

prompted by the vindication of his own personal relation with 
his employees. But between the spring of 1901 and the sum- 
mer of 1902 he was, as we have seen, actively interested m 
several attempts to settle labor disputes by the use of certam 
methods. These experiences fermented in his mmd, and stimu- 
lated his thought. Even then his ideas might have gone unex- 
pressed, had he not consented, as usual without premeditation, 
to address in August, 1902, two Chautauqua meetings. The 
speeches delivered at that time, an article in the National 
Magazine on "Socialism and Labor Unions" and a final speech 
made before a labor union in Columbus, Ohio, in April, 1903, 
constitute his longest and most important utterances on 
the labor question. They deserve careful consideration, not 
merely for the light which they shed upon their subject-matter, 
but because they enable us to understand Mr. Hanna himself 
very much better. For the first time in his public career, some 
of those essentially social values, embodied in his personal hfe, 
received explicit expression. 

He almost always began with an account of his own prac- 
tical experiences with a prolonged and embittered strike — 
that of the MassiUon coal miners in 1876. This one terrible 
instance, nearly thirty years before, had taught him to see the 
waste, the futility and the criminal danger of allowing such 
conflicts to settle themselves without any recognition of the 
endangered public interest. He had believed ever since that 
some effective machinery should be provided for the settlement 
of industrial disputes, and he welcomed the program of the • 
Civic Federation, because it recognized a public responsibility 
in the matter and attempted seriously and intelligently to i 
grapple with it. In his own words the Civic Federation was 
merely trying to apply the "Golden Rule" to the adjustment 
of such a quarrel — which meant that each of the two contestants ^ 
should not oppose the legitimate demands of the other and thatt 
each should abandon any practices of their o^vn, inimical to the 3 
best interests of society. 

The employers, on their side, should recognize that unions- 
were an indispensable and useful agency, not merely to protecti 
labor against capitalistic selfishness, but for the gradual creations 
of a better understanding between the wage-earner and the wage- 



THE CIVIC FEDERATION AND THE LABOR PROBLEM 405 

payer. Mr. Hanna never went so far as to advocate a thorough- 
going policy of recognizing and favoring union labor, but the 
tendency of his doctrine looks in that direction. If the laborer 
can obtain his fair share of the industrial product only by organi- 
zation, his attempts to organize should be approved rather than 
opposed. "The natural tendency," he said in his Chautauqua 
speech, "in this country, ay, and in the world over, has been 
the selfish appropriation of the larger share by capital. As 
long as labor was in a situation which forced it to submit, that 
condition would to a very large degree continue. If labor had 
some grievance and each laborer in his individual capacity 
went to his employer and asked for consideration, how much 
would be shown to him? Not much. Therefore, when they 
banded together in an organization for their own benefit which 
would give them the power, if necessary, to demand a remedy, 
"1 say organized labor was justified." It is essential, he adds, 
that employers should admit the existence of such a justifica- 
tion, and establish a foundation for joint action and mutual 
good-will by conferring with the unionized laborers and their 
representatives and entering into agreements with them. 

He had the utmost confidence in the practical value of such 
conferences. Frequently misunderstandings would be avoided, 
unreasonable demands mitigated, and comparative good-will 
restored merely by a frank discussion and ventilation of mutual 
grievances. "It is truly astonishing," he says in his article on 
"Socialism and Labor Unions," "to consider what trivial dis- 
agreements have occasioned some of the most serious strikes. 
I have seen two parties stand apart, each with a chip on his 
shoulder, defying his opponent to knock it off and moved by 
emotions and considerations that were very far from promoting 
the welfare of either party. There is more to overcome in the 
way of feeling on the part of capital than on the part of labor. 
Capital has been for many generations intrenched behind its 
power to dictate conditions, whether right or wrong ; and the 
abrogation of this power is not going to weaken in the least 
degree the strength of the hitherto dominant party, for a manu- 
facturing corporation can make no better investment than in 
the hearty cooperation and good feeling of its employees." 

While he justified the organization of labor in the interest 



406 MARCUS -\LONZO H.^NNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

both of the wage-earners and their employers, he feared certain 
of its tendencies. He regarded it "as an imported article" 
which had aroused a natural prejudice against itself in this 
country, because its policy was that of aggressive warfare 
against capital — a warfare which was to be relentless and which 
was "at variance with American institutions," because it in- 
troduced a spirit of mutual suspicion and antagonism instead 
of a spirit of mutual confidence into the heart of American 
industrial life. But he believed that the program of the Civic 
Federation would "fit the unions to their surroundings and 
conditions in the country." The Federation would not coun- 
tenance sympathetic strikes, the boycott, or any restriction of 
production in order to enhance prices. If the unions insisted 
on these policies, they would be converting themselves into 
industrial and social outlaws. As a condition of recognition 
they must make themselves worthy of approval by abandoning 
all practices based on an essential antagonism between their 
own interests and the demands of industrial efficiency and social 
well-being. He hoped to make the Civic Federation a construc- 
tive educational agency, which would gradually teach the two 
contending parties how far they could properly go without 
destroying a fair basis of conciliation and fruitful cooperation. 

His purpose was fundamentally to re-create good feeling be- 
tween employers and their employees by means of a personal inter- 
course and the mutual application of the " Golden Rule." " My 
theory is," he said in the Chautauqua speech, "that when you 
bring the men to you, every employee will feel that you are 
treating him as a man. Appeal to his heart and to his mind 
and you \vill succeed in establishing a bond of confidence." In 
all his utterances on the question he reiterates this fundamental 
idea. "Ever}' man is vulnerable in some part," he says in his 
article on "Socialism and Labor Unions," "and it is a rare 
thing to find any man proof against methods of kindness and 
justice. If every man is treated as a Man, and an appeal is 
made to his heart as well as to his reason, it will establish a bond 
of confidence as a sure foundation to build upon. This is the 
condition aimed at by the Civic Federation — absolute confi- 
dence on both sides. jVIany of the ills that have crept into labor 
organizations are importations from older countries and will 



THE CIVIC FEDERATION AND THE LABOR PROBLEM 407 

not live here because thay are not fitted to our conditions. 
While labor unions may have proved a curse to England, I be- 
lieve that they will prove to be a boon to our own country when 
a proper basis of confidence and respect is established. We 
have, perhaps, been too busy and too engrossed in our rapid 
expansion to look upon the ethical side of this question, and have 
forgotten that two factors contributed to the prosperity of our 
nation, — the man who works with his hands and the man who 
works Avith his head — partners in toil who ought to be partners 
in the profits of that toil." 

It will be admitted, I think, that the foregoing program is 
based upon a sound analysis of the immediate causes of ordi- 
nary strikes and that it prescribes a remedy which offers in the 
present emergency a fair chance of being useful. Of course the 
machinery whereby Mr. Hanna proposed to bring organized 
capital and organized labor together broke down. The In- 
dustrial Department of the Civic Federation did not continue 
to be an effective agency either for the settlement of labor dis- 
putes or for the establishment of better relations between Amer- 
ican wage-earners and wage-payers. The employers came in the 
end to resent its unofficial interference. The unions no longer 
allow their leaders to cooperate with the Federation. The 
ill-feeling and the mutual suspicion between the two con- 
testants have increased during the past ten years. But it is 
not fair to dismiss the whole program because the Federation 
itself did not prove to be as permanently useful a conciliating 
agency as it was during Mr. Hanna's leadership. The results 
which Mr. Hanna hoped to accomplish informally by the agency 
of a private organization backed by public opinion evidently 
demand a more powerful and authoritative engine of the social 
will — one which he himself might have been loathe to call into 
action. 

Nevertheless it would not be fair to attribute the temporary 
success of the Industrial Department of the Federation merely 
to Mr. Hanna's personal and political influence. This factor 
counted, but it would not have counted much, unless Mr. 
Harma had been disinterestedly engaged on behalf of what he 
believed to be a practicable plan of conciliation. His success 
was due, that is, not merely to his personal hold on business 



408 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

men and union leaders or his personal skill as a negotiator, but 
to his enthusiastic interest in the question and his increasing 
mastery of it. When he said to his audience at Urbana : "Oh! 
my friends, you have got to be with these men, among them and 
a part of them to understand this labor question thoroughly," 
he was describing his own actual position. He had remained, 
if not a part of them, at least close to them. They mutually 
understood and trusted one another. His friends in the unions 
had that very confidence in his good faith, which in a gener- 
alized form he postulates as the essential condition of any 
permanent improvement in the relations between capital and 
labor. They recognized his genuine sympathy with the wage- 
earner's ambition for a higher standard of living. He earnestly 
endeavored to instil the same feeling into his audiences and 
into his business friends ; and whenever it is shared by a larger 
number of people of all classes, the labor question will lose much 
of its present critical character. 

Many people who did not know him questioned the sincerity 
of his sympathy with organized labor and the validity of his 
ultimate purposes. He advocated labor unions, they said and 
still say, because he found it much more easy and convenient to 
get what he wanted out of a few labor leaders than out of a mob 
of unorganized workmen. Be it admitted that some such motive 
may have partly determined his preference for the unions. 
But the sincerity of his attitude was not thereby affected. 
Economic radicals, who believe in the inevitability and right- 
eousness of class warfare, like to read into the mind of every 
representative of wealth a "class consciousness" similar to 
their own, and they insist upon interpreting every action of 
such a man as the result of a more or less conscious purpose of 
exploitation. But "class consciousness" of any kind was pre- 
cisely the kind of consciousness which an American like Mark 
Hanna did not have. There welled up in him a spring of the 
old instinctive homogeneity of feeling characteristic of the 
pioneer American. His whole attitude towards labor and his 
program of conciliation are, indeed, the product of an innocent 
faith that his country was radically different economically and 
socially from Europe, and that no fundamental antagonism of 
economic interest existed among different classes of Americans. 



THE CIVIC FEDERATION AND THE LABOR PROBLEM 409 

All they had to do was to deal fairly and feel kindly one towards 
another. 

He was, of course, too shrewd a political leader not to under- 
stand the added strength which advocacy of the labor unions gave 
to his advocacy of big business. His labor policy was undoubtedly 
framed partly as a supplement to his corporation policy. 
"I believe, " he said in his speech to the Ohio State Convention 
in May, 1903, "I believe in organized labor, and I believe in 
organized capital as an auxiliary." But here again the labor 
program did not engage his support merely because it might 
sweeten the corporation pill for the palate of the American 
people. He was one of the first of our public men to under- 
stand that the organization of capital necessarily implied some 
corresponding kind of labor organization. He saw clearly that 
the large corporations could not survive in case their behavior 
towards their employees was oppressive, and that they would 
in the end strengthen themselves by recognizing union labor. 
Derived as the two forms of organization were from analogous 
sources, the future of both depended partly upon their ability 
to find some basis of mutual accommodation and cooperation, 
not incompatible with the public interest. In grasping this 
connection, and in insisting upon it, Mr. Hanna travelled far 
ahead of prevailing business and political opinion. The large 
corporations have at best been paternal in their policy towards 
their employees ; and whether paternal or not they have usu- 
ally been inimical to the unions. If their directors had under- 
stood the political and business interests at stake as clearly as 
Mr. Hanna did and had conciliated union labor, their situation 
at the present time in the face of American public opinion 
would have been very much better. 

At bottom, however, and most of all, Mr. Hanna's labor 
policy was the expression of personal kindliness and good-will. 
As an embodiment and advocate of pioneer economics, he had 
always been sincere in his belief that business expansion and 
prosperity would be of as much benefit to the wage-earners as 
to the capitalist. But he was obliged to recognize that the 
former were not satisfied with the share of the product which 
they received under competitive conditions ; and he came to 
realize that they were right in not being satisfied. His evident 



410 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

sincerity in introducing this exception into his general system 
of a state-aided process of economic production, but a socially 
irresponsible distribution of its fruits, proves his sincerity in 
claiming, as he always had, that he wanted to represent not 
one class but the American people as a whole. By emphasizing 
this exception, by proclaiming that capitalists had systemati- 
cally exploited their employees and that in their dealing with 
labor a humane motive should be substituted for the ordinary 
economic motive — in assuming such an attitude he was showing 
once again how clearly he could read and profit by the lessons of 
his experience. His whole plane of political and economic 
thought was raised to a higher level. He had liberated and 
made articulate the underlying humanity of his o\vn personal 
feeling towards the mass of his fellow-countrymen. 

But in this instance, as in the other more important develop- 
ments of his public personality, the revelation had been in a way 
imposed upon him. He had simply responded to a stimulus. In 
1900 he had not the slightest expectation of attempting to alle- 
viate the conflict between capital and labor. If it had depended 
on his own conscious will, he might have remained inarticulate 
until his death, and his friends would have been deprived of 
the most lucid and unalloyed public expression of his honest 
interest in the w^elfare of the laboring class. But the Civic 
Federation happened to be organized. His practical interest 
in the labor problem had left a trail behind it. The officials 
of the Federation found him out and went to him for help, not 
he to them for an opportunity^ He responded to the call, 
divined the opportunitj', seized it, and in seizing it, not only 
made it bigger, but made himself big enough to put it to good 
use. For the first time in his public career he became a reformer, 
dedicated consciously to the task of converting other people to 
a better way of dealing with a fundamental problem ; and the 
best of it was that his public appearance as a labor reformer was 
the natural, although fortuitous, expression of his lifelong per- 
sonal feelings and behavior. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

THE CAMPAIGN OP 1903 AND THE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION 

A CONTEMPORARY observer of Mr. Hanna's career might well 
have surmised in the fall of 1901 that the Senator had climbed 
as high in public estimation as was possible for a man of his 
economic opinions and political methods. He was the undis- 
puted leader of his party, and he was much more popular 
throughout the country than ever before ; but how could a man 
as definitely committed as Mr. Hanna was to special business 
interests and to ''machine" politics broaden any farther the 
basis of his public prestige ? We have seen how he succeeded 
in doing so. The increased scope of his legislative interests, 
his willingness to consider all legislative projects from a re- 
sponsible national standpoint, his decisive participation in the 
action of the Senate respecting an interoceanic canal, and 
finally his work on behalf of a better understanding between 
capital and labor, — his actions in all these matters had enhanced 
his stature still further in the eyes of the American people. 
There was no anticlimax in Mark Hanna's career. His public 
personality continued until the day of his death to gather size 
and distinction. 

What he had gained was an increasing amount of confidence 
in him on the part of the public. He had always possessed 
the trust of the men, no matter of what class, with whom he 
came into practical association. After he went upon the stump 
he won the support of the Republican voters of his own state. 
But from the beginning his close association with "machine" 
politics and with merely business interests had made a large 
element in public opinion question his influence on public 
affairs. Many men who liked what they knew of his personal- 
ity did not trust his methods or share his ideas. The tour in 
the Northwest during the campaign of 1900 had done a good 
deal to diminish this distrust, yet it continued to prevail, not 

411 



412 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

merely among radicals, but among men of reforming tendencies 
all over the country. Much of it was bound to remain in any 
event, because it was partly due to divergent views of public 
policy. But during 1902 he came to be regarded with increas- 
ing respect even by his irreconcilable opponents, while at 
the same time the number of these opponents was substan- 
tially diminished. Many more people than formerly tended 
to accept his political leadership. Confidence in his personal 
good faith unquestionably attached thousands of the smaller 
business men of the country to the support of the existing 
system — the very class which, during the year or two after his 
death, went over to the cause of reform. He was a great power 
not merely in public and party business, but in his influence 
on public opinion. 

A fair indication of the nature and extent of Mr. Hanna's 
influence is afforded by the merely external aspects of his life 
in Washington. The employees of the Senate all agree that 
no other Senator, when he was at the Capitol, had as many 
callers as did Mark Hanna ; and certainly the office of no other 
Senator was over-run with so many and such different people. 
In his anteroom would be found politicians of high degree from 
all over the Union, an equally large assortment of "big" and 
little business men, state governors. Congressmen, labor 
leaders, fellow-Senators and even Cabinet officers. Rarely 
did Mr. Hanna at this time call on either a colleague in the 
Senate or a member of the Cabinet. He would usually tele- 
phone to the latter's office, say that he wanted to see the secre- 
tary and inquire when it would be convenient for him to call. 
Nine times out of ten the secretary would make an appoint- 
ment to go and see Mr. Hanna. Towards the end the unusual 
consideration with which he was treated was partly due to his 
known physical enfeeblement ; but his peculiar prestige in the 
world of affairs and politics was no less responsible. The one 
man in Washington on whom he invariably called was, of course, 
the President. 

Another superficial fact of some significance is that he never 
used his committee room as an office. His mail, which at one 
time amounted to about half as much as all the rest of the Sen- 
ate, was sent to his private office. When he wanted to receive 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1903 413 

callers at the Capitol, he used the room of the Vice-President, 
which was situated just across the hall from the entrance 
to the Senate Chamber. The Vice-President, Mr. Hobart, 
loaned him the use of this room whenever he needed it, and 
after Mr. Hobart's death, the new presiding officer of the Senate, 
Mr. Frye, was equally accommodating. This is a trivial fact, 
but it is an illustration of the privileged position to which he 
had obtained by virtue of personal ties and his public impor- 
tance. 

No man who had succeeded in placing so much private and 
public credit to his personal account could escape being hailed 
as a candidate for the Presidency. Nomination and election 
to the highest office in the land were about the only American 
political distinction which might have still further enhanced 
Mr. Hanna's prestige and power. It would, indeed, have been 
the only fitting culmination to a career which had gathered 
such unexpected and unprecedented momentum. Had Mr. 
McKinley and Mr. Hanna both lived until the fall of 1904, the 
latter's nomination and election would have been extremely 
probable. Mr. Roosevelt might have been a stiff competitor, 
but he could hardly have overcome the power of the adminis- 
tration, assisted by that of Mr. Hanna, his friends and followers. 
Mr. McKinley himself would have been the only man who could 
have prevented Mr. Hanna's nomination. 

Mr. Hanna never deliberately intended and planned to make 
himself President — as he had planned and fought to make Mr. 
McKinley President and himself Senator. Had he retained 
his health, as well as his life, he would scarcely have refused a 
nomination offered to him by a substantial majority of his party ; 
but at no time did he himself begin to contrive his own nomina- 
tion or encourage his friends to do so. That was not his way, 
and if it had been his way, he would never have climbed as high 
as he did. He could not have used his peculiar personal and 
political advantages for the benefit of his own ambition without 
injuring the foundations of his power. His associates had 
confidence in him, because, as his career proved, he was work- 
ing primarily for what he believed to be the interest of the party 
or the country. Whenever he felt himself entitled to a particu- 
lar position, such as Senator, he fought for it; but he never 



414 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

attempted to manufacture a title which did not in a very real 
sense already exist. 

There were, however, powerful individuals in the community, 
who both from friendship and interest, wanted to see Mr. Hanna 
in the Presidential chair. Immediately after McKinley's elec- 
tion in 1900 the newspapers began to publish articles, naming 
Mr. Hanna as the "logical" nominee of the Republican party 
in 1904 — as, indeed, at that time he unquestionably was. Dur- 
ing the fall of 1901, just before Mr. McKinley's assassination, 
some followers of Mr. Haima in Cleveland organized a Mark 
Hanna Club, and proposed to assemble at a public dinner and 
launch a Hanna "boom." They were immediately and effect- 
ually suppressed. Mr. Hanna publicly announced that he was 
not a candidate for the nomination; and at his bidding the 
Mark Hanna Club, with a glorious outlook towards the future, 
was dedicated to the memory of a dead statesman of Ohio — 
James A. Garfield. Even if Mr. Hanna was to be nominated, 
he obviously could not afford to have the agitation in favor of 
his candidacy originate so near his own doorstep. 

The supersession of Mr. McKinley by Mr. Roosevelt com- 
pletely changed the situation. The new President had been 
considered as possible nominee — even when he was no more than 
Vice-President. His promotion made him more than ever a 
candidate. A President who has served only one term and 
wants a renomination has a presumption in his favor as a matter 
both of personal justice and partisan expediency. The one 
effective way in which his party can approve his administration 
is to make him its candidate. To refuse him the distinction 
constitutes the gravest possible criticism of the man and weakens 
the strength of the party in the prospective campaign. It can 
be justified only in case the President has done nothing to de- 
serve a nomination, or what he has done has lost hira the support 
of his party. In Mr. Roosevelt's case he frankly wanted a 
nomination, and he wanted it all the more because he had never 
been elected to the Presidency. Whether his administration 
was a success or a failure, he could make a strong bid for the 
honor, as Chester A. Arthur had done in 1884, by virtue of his 
control over patronage. Any attempt to nominate Mr. Hanna 
would, consequently, meet at best with a powerful resistance 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1903 415 

from the friends of a President who had been popular enough 
to have the nomination for Vice-President thrust upon him 
against the will of Mr. Hanna and the administration. The 
advocates of Mr. Hanna's candidacy could only wait and hope 
for some mistake or accident which would injure Mr. Roose- 
velt's prospects. 

Nothing, however, happened to make the President any less 
available as a candidate. He made some enemies, but he con- 
quered or attracted more friends. His administration was 
approved, and he himself was increasingly liked and admired. 
The advocates of Mr. Hanna's nomination would necessarily 
have been very much discouraged, had not the corresponding 
increase in the Senator's personal prestige tempted them to 
believe that not even the President's power and popularity 
or Mr. Hanna's own indifference could block the road. Senti- 
ment in favor of their favorite's nomination welled up spon- 
taneously on any and every favorable opportunity. 

The first occasion on which it obtained noticeable expres- 
sion was at the meeting of the Ohio State Convention, held 
in Cleveland late in May, 1902. The Convention itself was 
not of any great importance. It assembled only for the pur- 
pose of nominating some minor state officials. Senator Hanna 
was present and controlled its action and its official delibera- 
tions. The platform contained a cordial indorsement of Presi- 
dent Roosevelt's administration — one so cordial that the Presi- 
dent wrote to Mr. Hanna and thanked him for it. But the 
aspect of the Convention which attracted and deserved most 
attention was the practically unanimous outburst among the 
delegates of Hanna Presidential sentiment. The feeling never 
obtained any official expression, but the manifest attitude of 
the delegates might be fairly construed as a pledge of support 
for a movement in favor of his nomination. It was so con- 
strued by the newspapers all over the country and a great deal 
of discussion followed as to the respective claims and chances 
of the President and the Senator. 

In the meantime the relations between the two were cordial 
and even intimate. Both of them were loyal to the under- 
standing they had reached on the day of Mr. Roosevelt's suc- 
cession. The President consulted the Senator about the dis- 



416 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE -^D WORK 

tribution of patronage, and usually took his advice. There 
were very few disagreements between them on that score. They 
cooperated in all legislative matters during the session of 1902, 
and Mr. Hanna's success in securing the favorable consideration 
of the Panama route made a deep impression on the President. 
Thereafter their joint interest in the canal constituted another 
bond between them -Mr. Hamia being the first man outside 
the Cabinet to be confidentially notified by the President that 
a good title could be secured to the French property We 
have already indicated how closely they were associated during 
the critical days of the coal strike in October 1902 

The following incident illustrates the candor of their rela- 
tions and Mr. Hanna's attitude towards Mr. Roosevelt. In 
April 1902, Mr. Charles Emory Smith, formerly Postmaster- 
Gene'ral, published in the Saturday Evening ^f ^^ f ^^^^^ 
which he said : ''But the only man who knows that Mr Hanna 
has no aspirations towards the Presidency is "nt Roose- 
velt The two men fully understand each other^ V^l'^^ I 
questions of policy on which they do and will differ but they -| 
differ in a frank and manly way, like two self-centred men ac- 
customed each to think for himself, audit does not affect their 
good understanding." Mr. Hanna sent to Mr Roosevelt the 
article with the foregoing passage marked and accompanied 

by the following note : — 

4/8/1902. 

"My dear Mr. President: — 

" The enclosed article may not come under your eye. i nere- ■ 
fore I send it to you, because I think it good, and because a man : 
like Smith can see things outside the area of smoke. 

" Sincerely yours, 

"M. A. Hanna." 

And the President returned a reply saying that he was delighted 1 
with the article, and thought Smith a very fine fellow. 

But the smoke and the fire from which it came were not to. 
be dissipated. During the summer very little fuel was pro-- 
vided for its consumption, and there were no flare-ups; but 
during the campaign in the fall, while Mr. Hanna was stumping 
the state, he was continually being hailed as the next Republi- 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1903 417 

can candidate for the Presidency. The campaign was opened 
on September 27 at Akron, which was the home town of 
Chairman Charles Dick of the State Committee, Mr. Hanna's 
pohtical aide. The speakers, who consisted of Secretary Root 
and Senator Foraker, as well as Mr. Hanna, were continually 
being interrupted by cries from the audience: "Hanna in 
1904/' "Hanna in 1904." The newspapers remarked that the 
crowd was apparently interested in another candidacy besides 
that of Mr. Hanna. It was plentifully supplied with Dick as 
well as with Hanna buttons — Dick for Governor in 1903, Hanna 
for President in 1904. 

In the speech made at the Akron meeting Mr. Hanna first 
introduced the phrase "stand-pat" into American politics. 
He began with the following words: "About a year ago it was 
my privilege to attend the opening meeting of the Republican 
campaign, and after thinking over the situation I concluded 
to give you a piece of good advice — 'Let well enough alone.' 
That was all there was in the campaign of interest to you. Now, 
I say, ' Stand-pat ! ' [Great applause.] You are not on the de- 
fensive to-day in Ohio, or anywhere in the United States, or in 
the Philippines." He continued to hold this note during his 
exhortations throughout the campaign ; but after a little prac- 
tice he improved upon the form of the introductory sentence, 
until it finally became a peculiarly effective example of his 
colloquial vigorous way of demanding the attention of his audi- 
ence. Some days later at Steubenville he began as follows : 
" Two years ago I suggested to the people in view of the pros- 
perous time that they knew their business. They replied that 
they did. One year ago I suggested that they 'leave well 
enough alone.' They replied that they would. This year I 
suggested that they 'stand-pat,' and they will reply, ' You bet.' " V" 
The "You Bet" coming after the "Stand-pat" brought down 
the house — as well it might. This man of action was becoming 
a maker of phrases. 

The phrase "stand-pat," thus auspiciously launched on a long 
voyage in American politics, has since been adopted as the most 
popular description of stubborn political and economic con- 
servatism. It is a strong phrase, and its implications have un- 
doubtedly done the conservative cause some little harm. Con- 
2e 



418 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

servative politicians dodge the word, and resent the idea that 
they are standing pat or standing still. As originally used by 
Mr. Hanna it did not necessarily mean any such immovability 
of purpose or ideas. He intended it to be merely an effective 
figurative description of the proper attitude of public opinion 
under the prevailing economic conditions. The sun of Repub- 
lican prosperity continued to shine. Why not sit tight and en- 
joy its warmth? Any poker player knows that except on rare 
occasions a man who has a "pat" hand and does not "stand- 
pat" is a fool. He has not only nothing to gain by drawing 
cards, but usually he has everjd^hing to lose. That was pre- 
cisely Mr. Hanna's point. A man who "stands-pat" in poker 
is in so strong a position that he can play an aggressive game 
without taking any of the usual chances. No happier charac- 
terization could be invented of a policy which was neither de- 
fensive nor experimental. To "stand-pat" on a complete hand 
is the only course to follow. Let your opponents risk the long 
chance. 

Senator Hanna used the phrase in order to meet the demand 
already being heard among the Republicans of the Northwest 
for tariff revision. The tariff was the question above all others 
which he was afraid to reopen. He knew that as a matter of 
practical politics the tariff was the keystone of the whole Re- 
publican system. He knew that any revision upward would 
not be tolerated by public opinion, and any revision downward 
would tear the party to pieces. The result of a subsequent at- 
tempt at revision proved the soundness of his apprehensions. 
It both split the party and lost it the confidence of the country. 
The policy of protection upon which the Republican party was 
nourished for so many years may prove to be its undoing — 
unless it can gather strength to convert protectionism into a 
system which makes for national economic efficiency. 

Shrewd, however, as was Mr. Hanna's attitude towards tariff 
revision as a matter of practical politics, no party could con- 
tinue to follow his advice. At any particular moment it might 
be justified by the nature of its hand in "standing-pat," but a 
party which continued year after year to hold a "pat" hand 
and refused to take the chance of trying for something better, 
would inevitably be suspected either of bluffing or rigging the 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1903 419 

cards. "Stand-pattism," which under peculiar circumstances 
might be the most available practical policy, is impossible as a 
permanent course of action. A typical American will never 
admit that he is a "stand-patter" on anything but a particular 
question under a particular group of circumstances ; and a po- 
litical party or economic class which consistently held "pat" 
hands and proclaimed a policy of "standing-pat" would in- 
evitably provoke among their opponents the cry that the deal 
was not square. How Mr. Hanna would have readjusted his 
policy to the demand for a square deal, it would be useless to 
predict. He himself was not a "stand-patter" in respect to 
the labor question, and the germs of reform, when once im- 
planted in a man's system, have a tendency to ferment and 
spread. But in 1902 and 1903 he was undoubtedly in danger 
of being gradually forced, by his fear of raising difficult and 
dangerous questions, into the position of being a consistent 
" stand-patter." 

Apart from conspicuous symptoms of Mr. Hanna's popular- 
ity as a Presidential candidate and his new enunciation of "stand- 
pattism," the only other novelty in the campaign of 1902 was 
the vigorous campaigning of Mr. Tom L. Johnson. Mr. 
Johnson had been elected Mayor of Cleveland in the spring of 

1901 and was beginning his fight against the local traction 
monoply. His decisive success in the city tempted him to 
venture out into the state, and during the fall of 1902 he made 
speeches all over Ohio, carrying a circus tent with him, and 
enunciating unusually radical doctrines for a Democrat — in- 
cluding absolute free trade, the single tax and a relentless war- 
fare against the trusts. Mr. Johnson's fierce onslaught in 

1902 was generally understood to be merely a preliminary 
skirmish to the more serious battle of the following fall — when 
the question of Mr. Hanna's own reelection to the Senate 
would be contested. For that reason the speeches assumed a 
personal character. The facts that the two men were both old 
residents of Cleveland, that they had been rivals in building 
and operating street railways, and that they stood for dia- 
metrically opposite views of public policy, — all these circum- 
stances gave the campaign the appearance of a personal fight 
between the two men. 



420 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

On election day Mr. Hanna was completely victorious. The 
Republican ticket carried the state by the enormous majority 
of 100,000. So sweeping a victory was unprecedented, partic- 
ularly in an off year, and it showed conclusively that Mr. 
Hanna was more than ever popular in Ohio. His political 
leadership of the state was the issue on which the vote had been 
cast, and the result indicated a substantial increase of popular 
confidence in him. On the other hand, Mr. Hanna with all his 
prestige could not shake Mr. Johnson's hold on the people of 
Cleveland. The Mayor had the voters with him on the street 
railway issue. Tom Johnson won in the spring of 1903 rela- 
tively as decisive a victory in the municipal election as did the 
Republicans in the state election of the preceding fall. 

The overwhelming character of his victory in the state and 
Senator Hanna's addition of a labor plank to his own personal 
political platform served inevitably to increase the conviction, 
of Mr. Hanna's friends and supporters in his availability as a 
Presidential candidate. They were unable to take any overt 
action, in view of Mr. Hanna's steady refusal to encourage 
the enterprise ; but beneath the surface the ferment was the 
more active because it had no regular public outlet. From 
December, 1902, until the end of January, 1903, Senator Hanna 
received about 700 letters, urging him to wdthdraw his refusal, 
or promising support in case his candidacy became serious. 
These letters indicate very clearly the strength of the sentiment 
in favor of Mr. Hanna, the sources of that strength and the 
varying motives of his supporters. 

In the first place those large business interests with which 
Mr. Hanna had always been closely associated were strongly 
in favor of his nomination and were as strongly opposed to 
Mr. Roosevelt. In spite of the latter's caution in urging radi- 
cal policies during his first administration, they regarded him 
as "unsafe." His action in the coal strike, the suit against the 
Northern Securities Co., and above all the general tone of hi& 
public and private utterances confirmed them in this opinion. 
Their natural preference for Mr. Hanna was intensified by their 
dread of the only alternative candidate. Indeed, to judge by 
their letters, they were as much interested in beating the man 
of their fears as in nominating the man of their choice. But 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1903 421 

the reason upon which they most insisted for their opposition 
to the President was that he could not possibly be elected. 
One correspondent wrote late in 1903: "I was astounded to see 
in that club [the Union League Club of New York] — pre- 
sumably as representative a body of Republicans as there is in 
the country — conservative thoughtful men, — that there was not 
one out of that whole membership whom I met — not one — 
who believed that Theodore Roosevelt should be nominated, 
or if he were nominated, that he could be elected. The reasons 
given were not idle or prompted by personal feeling, but were 
based on the calm sober judgment of thinking men." Again 
and again this prediction is confidentially made. It came not 
merely from business men, but from politicians of experience. 
Both the business men and politicians always claimed to base 
it not merely on personal opinion, but on the result of careful 
inquiries among their customers, employees and associates. 
Confidence in its truth was apparently so universal among the 
supporters of Mr. Hanna that their solicitations assumed in 
their own eyes a holy war on behalf of party success. 

Another large group of letters came from Republican politi- 
cians and office-holders in the South. Mr. Hanna had always 
been popular among them, because he had placed the distribu- 
tion of patronage in the South on a regular basis and one which 
left it largely in the hands of the local organizations. Mr. 
Roosevelt, on the other hand, was less popular, because he had 
interfered with the smooth working of the established system 
and because he was appointing some negroes to office. Per- 
sonal grievances lay behind many of these letters, as well as 
personal loyalty to a man who had done a great deal for them. 
They made it apparent that, in case a fight had occurred, the 
administration candidate would not have had his usual walk- 
over in the South. 

Besides letters belonging to the two classes mentioned above 
there were a large number of appeals from small business men 
and lawyers all over the country who were ardent admirers 
of Mr. Hanna and wanted him to be a candidate — not to save 
the country or the party, but merely because they approved 
of his policies and liked him as a man. Most of the corre- 
spondents belonging to this class had neither grievances against 



422 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

Mr. Roosevelt nor fear of his political influence. Many of 
them professed a lively admiration of the President. But they 
admired Mr. Hanna still more, and urged that the accident of 
Mr. McKinley's death should not deprive him of a nomination 
to which his services to the party and the country entitled him. 

Towards the end of 1902 the situation and the resulting 
gossip and discussion began to have an effect on the relations 
between President Roosevelt and Mr. Hanna. There was, 
indeed, no change in the latter, nor any reason for change. He 
was, as always, playing fair. In his promise to support Mr. 
Roosevelt he had expressly reserved the question of the next 
Presidential nomination. In spite of his increasing friendship 
for Mr. Roosevelt, he so far shared the opinion of his own sup- 
porters that he would have preferred another candidate. But 
he was not working for any other candidate, and he always 
expressly and emphatically discouraged his own supporters. 
He sympathized in a way with the President's ambition, and 
never believed that the latter 's nomination would be or could 
be prevented. Nevertheless, honest and loyal as he was about 
the matter, the ambiguity and complications of the general 
situation invited misinterpretation. The opinions and prepara- 
tions of Mr. Hanna's friends were known to Mr. Roosevelt. 
The President was fighting an opposition which was as vague 
and impalpable as it was powerful, but which derived its 
power chiefly from the possibility of Mr. Hanna's acquiescence 
or support. The latter held the key to the situation. He 
might not be able absolutely to lock the door against Mr. 
Roosevelt's nomination, but he could certainly at any moment 
throw the door wide open. Eventually he must do either one 
thing or the other. A man who holds a key but refuses to use 
it exposes himself to misunderstanding. Mr. Hanna as well 
as Mr. Roosevelt had his enemies. They soon began to use 
the equivocal aspects of the situation to make trouble between 
the President and the Senator. 

The first and only occasion on which the trouble received 
public expression was in May, 1903, just before the meeting 
of the Ohio State Convention, and not long after a notable 
expression of the President's wish to please Mr. Hanna. The 
former was planning a long tour throughout the West after the 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1903 423 

adjournment of Congress. Before he departed he surprised 
and deUghted the Senator by saying that he would like to at- 
tend the wedding of Mr. Hanna's daughter Ruth, which was 
scheduled for early in June — an unusual request, which made 
the wedding look like an affair of state. At the same time the 
President also consulted the Senator about the substance of his 
speeches while on tour; and their misunderstanding had not 
gone so far that they could not joke about its cause. On March 
20 Mr. Hanna wrote to the President the following note, 
apropos of a published interview with General Charles H. 
Grosvenor, in which the Congressman stated at some length 
and with great emphasis that Mr. Roosevelt had the nomina- 
tion for 1904 in his pocket, that the talk of opposition to him 
was nonsense, and that any man who opposed him would be 
committing political suicide. Mr. Hanna enclosed a copy of 
the interview and added : — 
"My dear Mr. President: — 

"This settles me. Does it also settle my candidate for the 
Pension Agency of Ohio ? He 'bows too low.' 

"Hastily yours, 

"M. A. Hanna." 

Of course the political enemies of Mr. Hanna in Ohio were 
among Mr. Roosevelt's most aggressive supporters. It was 
these gentlemen who caused the disagreeable incident that 
occurred just before the meeting of the Ohio State Convention. 
On May 23, 1903, a despatch from Washington was published 
in the newspapers containing an interview with Senator Foraker, 
in which the Senator alleged that "the talk about having our 
Convention declare in favor of President Roosevelt as our 
candidate next year was started by his [Mr. Hanna's] own 
friends," that Mr. Elmer Dover, Senator Hanna's secretary, 
and others had denied in the papers that such action would and 
should be taken, and that these anti-Roosevelt declarations 
had forced the issue. If no such announcement had been made, 
the Convention, according to Mr. Foraker, might very well have 
contented itself with a mere indorsement of President Roose- 
velt's administration, but now that the issue had been precipi- 
tated, it would have to be met. The Convention would either 
have to make such a declaration or refuse to make it. 



424 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

The next day the following statement from Senator Hanna 
appeared in the press : — 

"I have seen the reported interview with Senator Foraker with 
reference to the proposed indorsement of the nomination of President 
Roosevelt by the next RepubUcan State Convention. At the outset I 
want to deny that Mr. Dover, my private secretary, or, so far as I know, 
any of my friends, had anything to do with raising this question. The 
first I knew of it was when I read in the papers a previous interview 
with Senator Foraker, which I construed as an expression of his own 
personal views. This was followed by an interview with General 
Grosvenor along the same line. These made it apparent that there 
was a disposition on the part of some people to suggest such action by 
the Convention. 

"I have no criticism to make of any individual as to his right to 
entertain or to express such views, but I certainly do criticise the 
propriety of action along that line by the delegates to the State Con- 
vention who are chosen for the purpose of nominating a state ticket. It 
does not appear to me to be entirely proper for this Convention to 
assume the prerogative of the one to be chosen in 1904, and upon which 
will rest the responsibility of representing and expressing the sentiment 
in our state for any candidate. 

" It would seem unnecessary for me to say that these conclusions are 
in no way influenced by any personal desires or ambitions of my own. 
I have often stated both privately and publicly that I am not, and will 
not be, a candidate for the Presidential nomination. On account of 
my position as Chairman of the Republican National Committee, and 
the further fact that this year I am supposed to have a vital interest 
in the results in Ohio as bearing upon my reelection to the United 
States Senate, it would be presumed that I might have some influence as 
to the policy or action of the State Convention this year in national 
affairs. In that connection it would seem apparent that whatever 
that influence might be it had been exerted in a direction which would 
cause just criticism on the part of any other person who might aspire 
to be a candidate for the Republican nomination for President in 1904. 
For these reasons I am opposed to the adoption of such a resolution." 

The issue thus raised was ugly and placed Mr. Hanna in an 
embarrassing situation. He was opposed to a Roosevelt in- 
dorsement for reasons soon to be stated in detail, but he had 
not wanted to show his opposition. If he indorsed the Presi- 
dent, he was apparently shutting the door on any other candi- 
date. If he opposed the indorsement, he would incur the oppo- 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1903 425 

sition of Mr. Roosevelt's friends during his own campaign for 
reelection. Mr. Foraker had cleverly contrived to force the issue 
into the limelight, while at the same time placing the responsi- 
bility for so doing on ]\Ir. Hanna. Under such circumstances 
either alternative presented increasing difficulties. Mr. Hanna 
still hoped, however, to refuse the indorsement without alienat- 
ing Mr. Roosevelt. On the day that he gave out the interview, 
he sent the following telegram to President Roosevelt : — 

''Seattle, Washington. 
^'The President: — 

"The issue that has been forced upon me in the matter of our 
State Convention this year indorsing you for the Republican 
nomination next year has come in a way which makes it neces- 
sary for me to oppose such a resolution. When you know all 
the facts, I am sure that you will approve my course. 

"M. A. Hanna." 

President Roosevelt replied the same day and gave his telegram 
to the Associated Press. 

"Cleveland, Ohio. 
"Hon. M. a. Hanna: — 

"Your telegram received. I have not asked any man for his 
support. I have nothing whatever to do with raising this issue. 
Inasmuch as it has been raised, of course, those who favor my 
administration and my nomination will favor indorsing both, 
and those who do not will oppose. 

"Theodore Roosevelt." 

This telegram and its immediate publication made it impos- 
sible for Mr. Hanna to escape the sharp edge of one of the two 
alternatives. He had confidently expected Mr. Roosevelt to 
accept his assurance that opposition to the indorsement did 
not mean enmity to the President. It simply meant that he 
did not want to shut the door on other candidates and that he 
did not want his campaign for reelection in 1903 embarrassed 
by the personal issues of 1904. After the answering telegram, 
however, further opposition to the indorsement would be inter- 
preted as a declaration of war against the President and might 
have split the party in his state. He was forced, consequently, 



426 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

to take his medicine ; but it was a nasty dose and he resented 
the action which compelled him to back down in the face of his 
personal opponents. On May 26 he telegraphed to the Presi- 
dent : — 

"Your telegram of the 23d received. In view of the senti- 
ment expressed I shall not oppose the indorsement of your 
administration and candidacy by our State Convention. I have 
given the substance of this to the Associated Press." 

In the meantime he had written to Mr. Roosevelt explaining 
why he had opposed the indorsement. I have no copy of the 
letter, but probably it did not differ in substance from a letter 
which he had written on May 23 to George B. Cox of Cincinnati, 
and which is a perfectly candid statement of his actual grounds 
of opposition. 

" My dear Cox : — 

" You have seen the row which has been kicked up about the proposed 
indorsement of President Roosevelt at the next State Convention. 
This proposition was a surprise to me — not because I have the faintest 
idea of being a candidate — but because it is not a proper thing to do 
under present conditions for the following reasons. First the State 
Convention this year has no right to assume the responsibilities of 
the next year's Convention as to any expression of the choice of candi- 
dates. Second my objections on personal grounds are as follows: I 
am Chairman of the National Committee. This is my year in Ohio 
politics. I am supposed to have influence to control the Convention 
as to its policy. Therefore if President Roosevelt is indorsed at this 
time it would be charged that I was responsible for shutting the door 
in the face of any other candidate who might aspire for the place. 
Such action would be criticised and justly so. I do not believe that 
the President himself would favor it, and I know well he would appre- 
ciate the embarrassment under which I would be placed. I had 
hoped and expected that nothing would occur to give me trouble 
this year. But as I cannot favor this action for reasons given above, 
I shall certainly oppose the resolution of indorsement at this time and 
hope my friends will approve and support my action. 

" Truly yours, 

"M. A. Hanna." 

On May 29 the President returned the following somewhat 
apologetic explanation of his belligerent telegram to Mr. Hanna. 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1903 427 

"My dear Senator: — 

" I thank you for your letter which gave me the first gleam of light 
on the situation. I do not think you appreciated the exact effect 
that your interview and announced position had on the country 
at large. It was everywhere accepted as the first open attack 
on me, and it gave heart, curiously enough, not only to my op- 
ponents but to all the men who lump you and me together as im- 
properly friendly to organized labor and to the working men generally. 
The mischievous effect was instantly visible. The general belief was 
that this was not your move, save indirectly ; but that it was really 
an attack by the so-called Wall Street forces on me, to which you had 
been led to give a reluctant acquiescence. I might not have said any- 
thmg for publication at all, had it not been for the statement that I 
approved your course. In the way the movement was interpreted 
this looked as if I was approving having my throat slit. My view 
was that you, of course, had an absolute right to be a candidate your- 
self, but that if you were not one, you would be doing me and the 
Republican party serious harm by fighting and very probably beating 
the proposition to indorse me by the Ohio Convention. 

" After thinking the matter carefully over I became sure that I had to 
take a definite stand myself. I hated to do it, because you have shown 
such generosity and straightforwardness in all your dealings with me 
that it was peculiarly painful to me to be put, even temporarily, in 
a position of seeming antagonism to you. No one but a really big 
man — a man above all petty considerations — could have treated me 
as you have done during the year and a half since President McKin- 
ley's death. I have consulted you and relied on your judgment more 
than I have done with any other man. Allow me to say that your 
magnanimous speech at the Cuyahoga County Convention is but an- 
other illustration of your course towards me and I appreciate it to 
the full. 

" Faithfully yours, 

" Theodore Roosevelt." 

Therewith the incident closed, and not many days after, the 
President was for twenty-four hours Mr. Hanna's guest in Cleve- 
land. But the effects of the little bout were different from what 
appeared on the surface. Mr. Roosevelt had wanted Mr. 
Hanna either to open the door or to slam it, so that his suspense 
would be over and he would have a fight on his hands or a clear 
field. Apparently he had gained a clear field, but in reality 
he had only increased the Senator's indisposition unequivo- 



L 



428 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK ^ 

cally to indorse his candidacy. Mr. Hanna had been placed 
in a humiUating position at the very moment when he particu- 
larly wished to appear to the public as the conquermg hero; 
and during the following fall, when the question of the Presi- 
dential nomination was finally becoming acute, his behavior 
was influenced by his recollection of the incident of the previous 

spring. . ,, 

If Mr Roosevelt wanted above all things to receive the per- 
sonal tribute of a nomination and election to the Presidency, 
so Mr Hanna wanted above all things a triumphant return to 
the Senate The circumstances of his first election as Senator, 
the vicious personal opposition which had greeted his candi- 
dacy within and without the party, the narrow margm whereby 
he had secured the seat, and the way in which his title to the 
seat had been attacked in the Senate, - all these facts made him 
desire, not merely the public vindication of another term, but 
the reward and satisfaction of an overwhelming victory. As 
he wrote to "Boss" Cox, this was his year in Ohio politics, and 
he could not afford to have his probable victory either threat- 
ened, diminished or marred. , 

His good judgment and self-control in avoidmg the issue 
which had been forced upon him, even at the cost of a retreat 
in the face of his enemies, were rewarded by success. There 
was no further hint of discord either in the Convention or m 
the campaign. It really became his year in Ohio politics. 
When the people cast their ballots on the following November, 
their verdict was not complicated by the intrusion of any ir- • 
relevant issues. The Convention nominated as the Republican i 
candidate for Governor, not General Charles Dick, but Myron i 
T. Herrick. Colonel Herrick had been closely associated with 
Mr Hanna in politics since the Convention of 1888. As a 
friend of Mr McKinley as well as of Mr. Hanna he had been con- 
stantly consulted by both men before and during the Conven- 
tion of 1896; and probably no other political leader in Ohio, 
General Dick excepted, had been closer to Mr. Hanna His 
candidacy had been announced in January, 1903, and it had been 
publicly accepted in April both by Mr. Hanna and Boss 
Cox of Cincinnati. The Foraker wing of the party had to be 
satisfied with the candidate for Lieutenant-Governor, which 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1903 429 

represented its usual share of desirable public offices. The 
fact, however, that the Lieutenant-Governor was associated 
with Mr. Foraker made some difference later, because when 
Colonel Herrick was mentiojied as a possible running mate for 
Mr. Roosevelt, he was embarrassed by the fact that if he re- 
signed, the state administration would be turned over to a 
follower of Mr. Foraker. Besides indorsing President Roose- 
velt and nominating Colonel Herrick the Convention also 
indorsed Mr. Hanna for another term; and his personality 
■could not be intruded into the campaign without becoming its 
dominant point of attraction and repulsion. 

The Convention with its stormy prologue and its harmon- 
ious ending was no sooner over than the eyes of the country 
were again turned towards Cleveland and the personal affairs 
of Mr. Hanna. On June 10 his daughter Ruth was married 
to Mr. Joseph Medill McCormick, the son of Mr. Robert S. 
McCormick of Chicago. Under the circumstances the mar- 
riage festivity could scarcely avoid becoming a tribute to Senator 
Hanna's prestige in public life and to his personal popularity — 
not merely among his neighbors but among his colleagues and 
political associates. 

In making plans for the wedding Mr. and Mrs. Hanna had 
been somewhat embarrassed. They hoped that the President 
and all the Senator's Washington friends would attend; but 
they did not want them to feel obliged to do so. Much to their 
satisfaction the President and certain prominent public men 
indicated so plainly a desire for an invitation that the matter 
settled itself. Besides Mr. Roosevelt and Miss Alice Roosevelt 
there were present Senator and Mrs. Nelson Aldrich, Senator 
Hale, Senator and Miss Kean, Senator Beveridge, Senator and 
Mrs. Wetmore, Mr. and Mrs. Clement Griscom, General Corbin, 
Postmaster-General Henry C. Payne and his wife and many 
others. Not merely Senator Hanna's own house on the lake 
front was filled with guests, but also the house of his brother, 
Leonard C. Hanna, and that of his son, D. R. Hanna. On an 
occasion of this kind Mr. Hanna was in his element and at his 
best. He enjoyed nothing so much as having a crowd of friends 
and relatives gather in his house to celebrate some happy occa- 
sion or event. It brought out the abounding store of good- 



430 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

fellowship in his nature and the warmth of his feeling for his 
friends. He managed to be omnipresent, chatted with every- 
body, and made all feel how much pleasure their presence gave 
to him. As usual his good humor overflowed in jokes. On the 
evening of the wedding day he caused consternation in two of 
his guests, who never dined without champagne, by telling 
them that the supply had fallen short. They looked extremely 
unhappy, until they reached the dinner-table, and found that 
it was a false alarm. Mrs. Hanna states that she had never 
seen him in higher spirits and happier than he was on this 

occasion. 

The summer was spent chiefly in preparations for the fall 
election. Not even the national campaign of 1896 was planned 
more elaborately and carefully. In view of the huge Republi- 
can majority in the fall of 1902, the prospects of a Republican 
victory looked brilliant, but it was always Mr. Hanna's prac- 
tice to make assurance doubly sure. To judge from his cor- 
respondence he really believed that there was some danger of 
defeat. He is constantly repeating that he has the fight of his 
life on his hands. Assuredly he spared no effort which might 
contribute to success, and brought into play all his arts and 
resources as a campaign manager. His exertions during this 
canvass were a terrible strain upon his already enfeebled physi- 
cal condition and aroused the anxiety of his friends and family. 
In all probability he was not so much anxious about the re- • 
suit as very much excited. His reelection was the dominant . 
issue of the campaign. The Democrats had nominated Tom i 
Johnson for Governor, and an excellent man, although not a; 
particularly strong candidate, named John H. Clarke for Sen- 
ator. Their platform advocated municipal street railways and 
the equalization of taxation, and made virulent attack on the 
privileges and powers of incorporated wealth. Tom Johnson i 
was responsible for the platform and was leading the anti- 
Hanna fight. He aroused a good deal of enthusiasm on the' 
stump, and put so much energy into his attack that there may/ 
have been some superficial cause for anxiety. Mr. Johnson.1 
had won a decisive victory in Cleveland in the spring of 1903.. 
An industrial shadow had appeared which was depriving much 
of the business of the country of the warmth radiating from 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1903 431 

the sun of Republican prosperity. Mr. Hanna feared also 
that votes for Democratic legislators would be bought with 
votes for a Republican Governor. In any event he wished to 
be reelected by a majority so overwhelming that the memory 
of his first election would be wiped out, and he would appear 
before the world as the undisputed possessor of the confidence 
of the people of Ohio. 

Whatever the motive, plans were laid for an exhaustive can- 
vass of the state. Mr. Hanna himself was to put in six weeks 
on the stump, and he was to be accompanied at times, not 
merely by Senator Foraker and Colonel Herrick, but by many 
prominent speakers from other states, including several cabinet 
officers. Mr. Dick wrote on behalf of Mr. Hanna to all Con- 
gressmen both in the Senate and the House whose services might 
be useful. Those who offered to help, and who testified in word 
and action to the extreme importance of a decisive victory for 
Senator Haima, were not confined to Mr. Hanna's personal 
friends and followers. They included men like Senator Dolli- 
ver, Senator Beveridge and Senator Clapp, who at a later date 
repudiated ** stand-pat" politics. But the most interesting 
letter which was received in answer to requests of assistance 
came from the veteran Senator George F. Hoar — the man who 
represented better than any other man the best traditions of the 
Senate and of the Republican party. 

Mr. Hoar had not been asked to speak, but the Cleveland 
Leader had requested him to contribute a letter in support of 
Mr. Hanna's candidacy. Mr. Hoar upon receipt of the request 
sent the following private letter to Mr. Hanna, explaining the 
reasons for refusing a public testimonial : — 

"Worcester, Mass., Aug. 31, 1903. 
"Dear Mr. Hanna: — 

"I have received the enclosed document from Mr. Starek. 
There is nobody living who feels more strongly the value of 
your public service to the country than I do. I am afraid you, 
with your modest appreciation of yourself, would think I was 
inclined to flattery if I were to state it to you as strongly as I 
have been in the habit of stating it to other people when some 
fit occasion has arisen. It is very seldom that men who bring 



432 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

to the public service the wisdom gained by long practice and 
most successful experience in business affairs combine with it 
the capacity for clear and powerful statement in debate or that 
they are wise counsellors in political matters outside of their 
o\vn calling in life. You have no superior among your asso- 
ciates in the Senate in these things." Then Mr. Hoar goes 
on to explain that he had always felt obliged to refuse such 
requests and stated his reasons — which do not concern us here. 
Another private testimonial, which was never published, came 
from Senator Spooner. "I am extremely anxious," he writes,. 
"that you should be reelected. Your business experience, 
your desire for the prosperity and well-being of the country, your 
excellent judgment and aptitude for national legislation, your 
sense of responsibility as a Senator which leads you to give, 
without stint or regard for your own comfort, active study and 
work to the discharge of the duties of the Senatorship, your 
personal popularity in the Senate, and your ability as a debater, — 
all combine in my judgment to make you a powerful, patriotic 
and therefore valuable factor in national legislation and in 
determining our public policy. A failure to reelect you to the 
Senate I should esteem a public misfortune." 

Among his embarrassments at this critical moment was the 
state of his health. He passed the greater part of July on a 
friend's yacht, in order to gather strength for the coming cam- 
paign. Nevertheless he was laid up in bed for some days, just 
before he opened his speaking tour ; and throughout the fall 
he was far from well. A few weeks on the stump were no longer 
an exciting and refreshing episode in his life. His increasing 
infirmities made the discomforts and the constant pressure of 
a long campaign irksome and even distressing. His state of 
mind is indicated by the following incident. One evening after 
a peculiarly hard day's work in cold autumn weather, and when 
he had returned to his private car and was finally warm and 
comfortable enough to regain something like his ordinary 
spirits, he told his companions (according to Colonel Herrick) 
the following story. During one of the battles of the Civil i 
War a soldier was seen walking away from the front in ano 
utterly dishevelled condition. He had been wounded before^ 
he left the firing line. He had been accidently run down and I 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1903 433 

trampled on by a squadron of cavalry. His face was bloody. 
An arm hmig limp from his side. He could scarcely drag one 
leg after another. There seemed to be no part of his body 
which was not the worse for war and wear. As he hobbled 
dejectedly along, he was heard to mutter: "I love my country. 
I would fight for her. I would bleed for her. Yes, I would even 
die for her. But I'm damned if I ever love another country." 

In the speeches made during the fall of 1903, Senator Hanna 
added nothing essential to the past statements of his political 
and economic ideas, but he placed them before his public in an 
unusually effective manner. Always an easy speaker and im- 
pressive because of his powerful personality, he had gained by 
virtue of long practice an increasing mastery over his own 
methods of utterance. While his speeches were still impro- 
vised and they still rambled along a little incoherently, his 
individual sentences became more consecutive and precise, and 
certain phrases usually appear at the beginning or in the body 
of his speeches, which indicate an increasing tendency to pre- 
pare in advance effective methods of expression. But above 
all they benefited from the fact that his mind had become 
gradually stored with weightier matter. When he was very 
much stirred, he no longer expressed his feelings merely with 
a kind of explosive energy. He could rise, not quite to elo- 
quence, but to some dignity of utterance, which made his evi- 
dent sincerity still more impressive. His own public life was 
becoming identified with higher issues, and was reaching a 
higher plane of verbal expression. 

On November 3 the people of Ohio gave to Mr. Hanna the 
overwhelming victory and the complete vindication which 
he so ardently desired. Colonel Herrick was elected by a 
majority of over 100,000. In 1901 Senator Foraker had ob- 
tained thirty-five more legislative votes than had his Demo- 
cratic opponent, which was considered extraordinary. The 
Legislature elected in the fall of 1903 contained a Republican 
majority of 91 on joint ballot; and Mr. Hanna was after- 
wards elected by an actual majority of 90 — receiving 115 
votes to his opponent's 25. One of the most gratifying aspects 
of the returns was the triumph in Mr. Hanna's oavti county 
of Cuyahoga. Mr. Herrick's plurality over Johnson was no 
2f 



434 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

less than 8520, and every candidate on the Republican ticket 
was elected by a comfortable margin — and this in spite of Mr. 
Johnson's equally emphatic success only a few months before. 
Evidently many thousand votes which had been cast for Mr. 
Johnson on local issues were cast for Mr. Hanna on state 
and national issues. So far as any political leader's career can 
be justified by the approval of his own people, that justifica- 
tion was Senator Hanna's. The issue was as sharply drawn 
for and against him as it had been in 1897. His future career 
and his political leadership of the state were at stake. He 
could no longer be denounced as a labor-crusher ; but the voters 
were asked to reject him as plutocrat and a friend of privilege 
in American politics and business. If the campaign had taken 
place in 1910 instead of 1903, he could not have been any more 
sharply attacked for his friendliness to the "Interests." But 
the people of Ohio refused to believe that the public interest 
was not among the interests he served. They declared at the 
polls their enthusiastic and overwhelming confidence in the 
integrity and good faith of his political leadership. 

Early in November, when the results of his election were 
known, Mr. Hanna received hundreds of letters congratulating 
him on his success. These letters came from every state in 
the Union and were written by all classes of people — bankers, 
merchants, manufacturers, union leaders, professional men, 
"drummers," clergymen, college presidents and railroad em- 
ployees. Half a dozen notes of congratulation were even received i 
from Roman Catholic convents. Qne of the most interesting ; 
and instructive incidental phases of Mr, Hanna's political career • 
was the support he obtained from prominent Catholics. Arch- 
bishop Ireland was in frequent correspondence with him and 
used his influence on Mr. Hanna's behalf. But this alliance 
did not prevent Mr. Hanna from getting along equally well 
with the Salvation Army, several of whose leaders congratu- 
lated him on his reelection. There seems to have been an i 
instinctive gravitation towards Mr. Hanna on the part of men ■ 
who represented powerful organizations and believed in the 
principle and method of organization — no matter whether the 
purpose of the organization was religious, social, political, 
industrial or labor. 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1903 * 435^ 

A large proportion of the letters congratulating Mr. Hanna^ 
on his election urged him to become a candidate for the Presi- 
dency. The decisive and overwhelming character of his per- 
sonal victory strengthened enormously the hands of those of his 
friends who wished to make him President — whether he would 
or not. They had been discouraged by the Roosevelt in- 
dorsement, which had been extorted from the Ohio Convention 
in the spring, but they were merely biding their time. Through- 
out the campaign he had been repeatedly hailed at public meet- 
ings and dinners as the next President of the United States — 
although this fact was usually suppressed in the newspaper 
reports. It was part of his policy never to call public attention 
to these compliments either by encouraging or discouraging 
public comment. But they were a matter of general gossip, 
and his silence when actually under this kind of fire puzzled 
his friends and alarmed the supporters of Mr. Roosevelt. 

The business men in New York, who were determined to 
push Mr. Hanna's candidacy, began immediately after the elec- 
tion seriously to organize. A committee was appointed. One 
hundred thousand dollars were raised and two hundred and 
fifty thousand dollars pledged for preliminary expenses. Prom- 
ises were given of a much larger campaign fund to be sub- 
scribed whenever necessary. A comprehensive survey of the 
■ whole field was made and a careful calculation of the number 
of delegates which they could reasonably count upon getting. 
The outlook was considered to be very encouraging. They 
expected in the first place to secure a united delegation from 
Ohio. In spite of the fact that Mr. Roosevelt was a New 
Yorker, they counted on a united delegation from that state. 
The local machinery was controlled by Governor Odell, who 
was favorable to Mr. Hanna and had promised to use his in- 
fluence on behalf of their candidate. In Pennsylvania Senator 
I Quay was for Roosevelt, but they beHeved that they had a good 
chance of dividing the state. They were assured also that the 
delegation from Indiana could be secured. After an investi- 
gation of conditions in the South, they were hopeful of obtaining 
two-thirds of the delegates from that region. In case all these 
3alculations were sound, it looked like a sure thing. 
Preparations as elaborate as these were sure to reach the 



't36 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK ^ 

krs of the President and his friends; and among Mr. Roose- 
velt's ostensible friends at this time were certain of Mr Hanna s 
enemies -such as Senators Foraker and Quay. They were, 
not slow to use the situation to embroil the relations between 
the two men. It wa^ easy to suggest that the spontarieous 
expressions of opinion favorable to Mr. Hanna s candidacy 
which were constantly breaking out, were secretly inspired 
and encouraged by Mr. Hanna or his immediate lieutenans ; 
and the ambiguity of Mr. Hanna's public attitude gave color 
to these suspicions. Mr. Roosevelt was naturally infected 
bv them If Mr. Hanna did not, as he had frequently 
stated, intend to be a candidate, why did he not suppress the 
dubious preparations of his friends by declaring unequivocally 
and publicly that he was in favor of the only alternative candi- 

Vhere was danger for a while of an open break between the 
two men Mr. Hanna's enemies tried to precipitate a fight 
by advising the President to ignore Mr. Hanna m certain i 
matters comiected with patronage in Ohio. Senator Foraker had 
in his own opinion always been deprived of his fair share o 
these Federal offices. As long as McKinley lived, he had of I 
course, no means of putting up an effective fight. He had to 
take 4at he could get, and he attributed to Mr. H^nna^ in- 
fluence some of Mr. McKinley's personal appointments. Bemgj 
both a proud and ambitious man, he chafed at a situation, 
which was making his political career end in a cul-de-sac. He 
had skilfuly managed in the spring of 1903 to use the question 
of Mr Roosevelt's indorsement as a weapon with which to. 
attack Mr. Hamia; and although winning a t^f^^^^^^^^ ^^^*;7'; 
he failed in his deeper purpose, which was to bring about an. 
open breach between his colleague and the administration , 
While the President was in a suspicious state of mmd about. 
Mr. Hanna, Senator Foraker very nearly persuaded him ta 
make certain appointments to the Postmasterships of Napoleoi. 
and Lima which would have been offensive to the jumor Senator 
Mr. Hanna was well aware of these machinations /here J 
evidence that, had he lived, he would at the next favorabl 
opportunity have done his utmost to make Mr. Foraker there, 
after a negligible factor in the politics of Ohio. 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1903 437 

While the gentlemen mentioned and others were trying to 
convince the President that Mr. Hanna was acting in bad faith, 
certain friends of both Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Hanna were 
working hard to prevent the breach from widening. Among 
them was Mr. George B. Cortelyou, who, as Mr. McKinley's 
private secretary, had been close to Mr. Hanna, and who was 
now secretary of the new Department of Commerce and Labor 
in President Roosevelt's Cabinet. Being disgusted at an 
absurd tale which had been carried to him, concerning some 
remarks which Mr. Hanna had been reported to make about 
the President, he decided to get at the root of the matter. With 
this intention he went to see the Senator at the Arlington Hotel, 
and the two had a long interview. Mr. Hanna declared with- 
out qualification that he was not a candidate, that he never 
had been and never would be a candidate. He had assured 
the President of that fact, and he was offended because his word 
was doubted. He was tired, he said, of going to the White 
House every day, of putting his hand on his heart and being 
sworn in. It was not a dignified thing for him to do. He 
had played fair with the President, and he thought that Mr. 
Roosevelt ought to accept his word at its face value. 

Some days later Mr. Cortelyou went to see the President and 
found him in conference with three friends, one of whom was 
a member of the Cabinet and another a Senator. The burden 
of the conversation was that Mr. Haima's conduct was suspi- 
cious and ambiguous. The President sprang from his chair, 
walked nervously to the open fire and then back to his desk, 
saying in his emphatic way, "Yes, Mr. Hanna ought to make 
an unequivocal public statement of his position." At this point 
Mr. Cortelyou broke in, and said : "You gentlemen do not know 
what you are talking about. I know that Mr. Hanna has no 

; intention of being a candidate for President." Mr. Roosevelt 
accepted this assurance as authentic, because he had heard of 

: Mr. Cortelyou's recent interview with Mr. Hanna. That an 
open breach was avoided was due chiefly to the good offices of 
such men as Mr. Cortelyou and Mr. James R. Garfield, then 
Commissioner of Corporations. The latter was in close com- 

•munication both with Mr. Hanna and the President. While 
he thought the Senator should make a public statement which 



438 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

would clear up the ambiguities of the situation, he always 
credited Mr. Hanna with acting in perfect good faith, and he 
always advised Mr. Roosevelt to that effect. Mr. Theodore. 
E. Burton also contributed effectively to the maintenance of 
good relations by advising Mr. Roosevelt about Ohio appoint- 
ments in a sense which may have prevented the President 
from offending Mr. Hanna. 

It is, of course, easy to understand the President's predica- 
ment. He wanted the nommation and had good grounds for 
wanting it. Mr. Hanna was the only man who could have 
prevented him from getting it. What Mr. Roosevelt desired, 
consequently, above all things was that Mr. Hanna should 
declare himself explicitly, not merely about his own personal 
candidacy, but in reference to other candidates for the office. 
A man of the President's disposition, to whom suspense which 
cannot be exorcised by vigorous and decisive action is intoler- 
able, almost preferred an open fight to a prolonged condition 
of tantalizing doubt. He tried in every way to induce Mr. 
Hanna either to indorse his candidacy or explicitly to disap- 
prove of it. His telegram on the occasion of the Ohio Con- 
vention of 1903 was his first attempt to force the issue. Later 
in the fall of the year with the same end in view he repeat- 
edly urged Mr. Hanna to accept a reappointment as Chair- 
man of the National Committee. But all to no purpose. For 
reasons which will be discussed later, Mr. Hanna would not 
commit himself in public either in favor of the President or r 
against him. 

Yet without the shadow of a doubt, Mr. Hanna neither in- 
tended to be a candidate himself nor did he intend to oppose 
Mr. Roosevelt's nomination. There are a number of letters 
in existence, written to correspondents with whom he was on 
terms of the utmost intimacy. Not one of them wavers a 
hair's-breadth from the assertion that he was not and would 
not be a candidate. Not one affords the slightest intimation 
that he intended to oppose Mr. Roosevelt's selection. State- 
ments about Mr. Hanna's attitude have been taken from alll 
of his confidential friends. None of them ever heard him sug-; 
gest anything favorable to his own or necessarily inimical tc 
Mr. Roosevelt's candidacy. Mr. Cornelius N. Bliss, tham 



f 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1903 439 



whom no friend was more affectionately intimate with the 
Senator, asserts that the burden of all of Mr. Hanna's conversa- 
tion with him about the matter was: "Roosevelt is to be nomi- 
nated. There is no question about it. I have never had any 
desire or ambition for the nomination, and under no circum- 
stances would I accept." One day when the two were sitting 
together in the Waldorf, a ''very influential man" turned to 
Mr. Bliss and said, "You know, we are going to nominate Mr. 
Hanna for President." "You are not," replied Mr. Hanna. 
"I am not going to have anything to do with it." Mr. Charles 
F. Dick's testimony absolutely coincides with that of Mr. Bliss. 
One of the closest friends of Mr. Hanna in the Senate was 
N. B. Scott of West Virginia. His public attitude in respect 
to the nomination gave the joint friends of Mr. Roosevelt and 
Mr. Hanna a good deal of trouble, because of statements which 
in their opinion might mean that Mr. Hanna was a candidate 
under cover. On Dec. 23, 1903, he wrote to Mr. Hanna a 
letter, of which the following are the essential sentences: — 

<.,, -^ ^^ (Personal and Confidential) 

My dear Mr. Hanna: — 

"No man on earth has any better opinion of your good judgment 
and hard sense than I have, but I do believe you are making a mistake. 
To my mind it is a foregone conclusion that if we renominate Roosevelt 
it means defeat. Are you going to accept the responsibility of allowing 
the Republican party to go to defeat ? . . . Or if this man is reelected, 
what kind of an administration shall we have ? Shall we not have the 
Republican party, at the end of four years, in the same condition that 
President Cleveland had the Democratic party? 

: " I want you to sit down and pray with yourself for an hour and a half, 
,as we used to do in the Quaker meetings, and then ask yourself whether 
you are doing your duty to the country and to your party by refusing 
either to allow yourself to be a candidate or to name some other man. I 
;believe that if you will suggest the name of Cornelius N. Bliss, Senator 
Fairbanks or a number of other good men, one of them can be nominated 
and elected. ... Let me hear from you in confidence. You have no 
idea of the amount of pressure that is brought to bear on me to have 
you say something. 

" Your old friend, as ever, 

"N. B. Scott." 
To this letter Mr. Hanna replied on December 30: — 



440 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

" My dear Senator : — 

" I have just received your personal and confidential letter of the 23d 
inst., and it is needless for me to say to you how much I appreciate this 
latest expression of your personal regard. My recent illness has merely 
been one more admonition and warning to take care of myself and em- 
phasizes the fact that my own interest forbids the course you advise. I 
do not see how I can be held responsible for the situation you describe. 
Neither can I see my way clear to being the instrument to create 
dissension, discord and confusion in the party. I have decided that 
the best thing for me to do is to say nothing more whatever on the 
subject. I beheve that you will agree with me that this is the wisest 

course. ,, ^ , 

Truly yours, 

" M. A. Hanna." 

Two days after the letter to Mr. Scott was written, Colonel 
Oliver H. Payne arrived in Cleveland on a secret mission to 
Mr. Hanna. He was a member of the committee which had 
been formed in New York to promote Mr. Hanna's nomination. 
He wanted an interview, in order to place before their candidate 
the results of their work up to date. He had a long conference 
with Mr. Hanna, who, after hearing what he had to say, re- 
peated that he could not and would not be a candidate. He 
said that he wanted to remain in the Senate and that many 
questions in which he was deeply interested required his per- 
sonal attention in that body. His whole life and all his interest 
were wrapped up in the work of the Civic Federation. He 
would rather succeed in bringing capital and labor into cordial 
relations with each other and open the way to permanent in- 
dustrial peace and consequently to indefinite future prosperity 
than to be President of the United States. He feared that in 
case he became a candidate he would be misrepresented and 
that he would be accused of using the Civic Federation to pro- 
mote his political fortunes. He would not put himself in a; 
position which might cause any reasonable man to misconstrue ( 
his work on behalf of labor. He wound up by declaring that, 
the state of his health would not permit him to enter the contest 
and that the work of the campaign would kill him. When Colonel 
Payne urged in response that he would not be compelled to 
make a campaign, that his name would sweep the Convention,! 
that his friends would relieve him of all labor, and that all they 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1903 441 

wanted was an assurance that they could go ahead without 
his disapproval, he refused to budge an inch from his former 
assertions. Colonel Payne returned to New York very much 
disappointed, but not discouraged to the point of abandoning 
the fight. 

Only one more item need be added to the foregoing exhibit. 
Mr. Elmer Dover, Mr. Hanna's private secretary, states that 
probably Mr. Hanna's closest associate in the Senate was Orville 
Piatt of Connecticut. Now Mr. Piatt, unlike some other 
friends of Mr. Hanna, believed not only that the President 
should be nominated, but that he was the only man who could 
be elected. Late in November, 1903, after Mr. Hanna had 
returned to Washington, Senator Piatt wrote to a friend in 
Connecticut, who did not like the talk about Mr. Hanna's 
candidacy : — 

" If I understand the situation, Mr. Hanna is not a candidate for the 
Presidency, will not be, and deplores all this talk ; but how can he stop 
it ? That there is an opposition to the nomination of President Roose- 
velt is undoubtedly true. It is not very extensive or very influential, 
but it is noisy, and in my judgment will utterly fail when the Conven- 
tion is held — indeed, I doubt if it manifests itself then. It comes from 
both ends of the party — from the moneyed influences in Wall Street 
and the agitators in the labor movement — one as much as the other. 
Each of these elements wishes to force the President to make terms with 
them, but he will not do it. I think I know that Senator Hanna does 
not sympathize with this in the least. I have a higher regard and more 
genuine respect for him than you seem to have. He is a straight- 
forward, earnest, truthful man, who acts from conviction, fears no one, 
and makes no effort improperly to conciliate people who disagree with 
him. He is very much like President Roosevelt in this respect." (P. 
515, "An Old-fashioned Senator.") 

Towards the end the relation between the President and 
Senator Hanna improved, but they never again became en- 
tirely satisfactory. They could not become so until the ques- 
tion of the nomination was settled. The enemies of both men 
persisted in trying to create ill-feeling. The New York Sun, 
for instance, printed a story about some reported utterance 
of the President that he would soon make the Senator either 
fish or cut bait; and the story was told so circumstantially 



442 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

that Mr. Roosevelt wrote to Mr. Hanna a denial of its truth. 
In case the Senator had not been taken seriously ill, there is 
no telling how the business would have ended. 

Inasmuch as Senator Hanna had decided absolutely never 
to accept the nomination — except, perhaps, in the impossible 
contingency of its being offered to him by acclamation — what 
is the explanation of his refusal to publish his private opinion 
that the President was bound to be nominated ? The reasons 
he usually gives are not quite convincing. In the spring of 1903 
they had a good deal of force. His position and influence in the 
party were unique. He was still its leader. As its leader and 
as Chairman of the National Committee, a declaration in favor 
of any one candidate a year in advance of the National Con- 
vention might have been unfair to other possible candidates. 
It was his business to represent the whole party. But in No- 
vember, 1903, the only candidates in sight were the President and 
Mr. Hanna himself. An indorsement of Mr. Roosevelt could 
injure no candidacy but his own, and he did not want and would 
not take the nomination. Why not accept the situation and come 
out frankly in favor of the man whom he believed would have 
to be nominated? Prudence and a regard for the interests 
of the party might have counselled such a course, because the 
crisis was creating a dangerous tension of private and public 
feeling which might almost any day cause something to snap. 

Just what Mr. Hanna's several motives were and what was 
their comparative force must always be doubtful ; but state- 
ments made to close friends seem to justify the following general 
description of their effect. In the first place, his supporters 
in New York may have induced him to promise that, even 
if he would not consent to be a candidate, he would not, 
by declaring in favor of Mr. Roosevelt's nomination, extin- 
guish all hope of preventing it. He might have made this 
promise, not only as a concession to a group of friends who 
were working hard in what they believed to be his interest^ 
but because of his own personal attitude towards the President. 
While he liked Mr. Roosevelt much more than formerly, and 
while there was respect and admiration mixed with his liking, 
he shared to some extent the feelings of his supporters. He 
realized that the President represented a theory of the public 



TKE CAMPAIGN OF 1903 443 

interest different from his own, — a theory to which he was 
loath to give even by impHcation his public approval. For 
the present Mr. Roosevelt was bound by his promise not to 
depart from the McKinley policies; but if he were reelected, 
particularly by a decisive majority, he would be justified in 
cutting loose. Mr. Hanna feared the effect of such an eman- 
cipation upon the leadership of the Republican party and the 
policy of the country. 

Inasmuch, however, as he regarded Mr. Roosevelt's nomi- 
nation as inevitable and had no intention of opposing it, what 
did he expect to gain by holding back ? The question is diffi- 
cult to answer, because Mr. Hanna in all probability did not 
clearly define to himself his own motives and intentions. It 
looks, however, as if he wanted to make the President feel and 
respect his power — not with the purpose of driving any bargain, 
but with the general idea of keeping his personal independence 
and so far as possible his leadership of the party. Whatever 
the future had in store for the President, for the organization 
and for himself, it was essential from his point of view that 
conservative Republicanism should under the new regime be 
kept somewhat separate and be strengthened in its independence. 
He knew that President Roosevelt would do much to avoid 
splitting the party; and he may have thought that he would 
be able to make better terms after the election, in case he con- 
tinued for the present a demonstration of his personal power. 
He understood much better than did many of his own supporters 
Mr. Roosevelt's strength with public opinion, and he knew 
how much of an increase of prestige would follow from a tri- 
umphant election. He did not want the victory — if and when 
it came — to be merely Mr. Roosevelt's. 

Finally personal feelings and motives were involved. He 
had never forgiven the way in which an indorsement had been 
extorted by the President from the Ohio Convention of 1903. 
He had been crowded into a corner, and obliged to choose 
between a breach in the party and a personal humiliation. He 
resented it. He resented also the efforts which were being 
made to force him prematurely on board the triumphal car 
of another candidate. He felt that his independence ought 
to be respected and recognized without exposing him to sus- 



L 



444 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

picions of bad faith. He may even have enjoyed the ferment 
of gossip, expectations, hopes and fears which his own much 
discouraged candidacy had created. If he was not to be Presi- 
dent, he could hardly avoid some satisfaction and amusement 
in watching the ghost of his chance to be President haunt the 
corridors of the White House and at times hover ominously 
over the whole political landscape. 

The question remains, whether, even if his health had not 
forbidden him to be a candidate, he would have considered 
any more favorably the solicitations of his New York friends. 
All who are most familiar with Mr. Hanna's attitude agree 
that it would not. No doubt many of the reasons which he 
gave for not wanting to be President could have been over- 
come. His assertion, for instance, that he preferred his pe- 
culiarly influential position in the Senate to the work of Presi- 
dent was sincere ; but his unquestionable satisfaction with his 
work and power as Senator would scarcely have prevented 
him from assuming the more irksome office, but the one which 
offered the greater opportunities of personal effectiveness and 
renown. He was also sincere in stating that he would not 
abandon his work on the Civic Federation even to be President. 
He was wrapped up heart and soul in that work. He had in 
his own mind a definite program of gradual development, 
which was to last over many years, and which was to culminate 
in nothing less than a permanent peace between capital and 
labor. He really hoped and expected to accomplish some such 
result, and had he succeeded, his fame would certainly have 
been more permanent and glorious than any which could re- 
sult from a few years as President. But even so, he might have 
been persuaded that a President could accomplish more to 
carry on the work of industrial conciliation than a Senator — 
no matter how powerful. 

The fundamental consideration, apart from his health, which 
probably determined his refusal, was a clear anticipation of the 
consequences to his own career and to the Republican party 
of an official candidacy. As I have said, his sense of the cur- 
rents of public opinion enabled him to understand better than 
did his supporters and friends the strength of Mr. Roosevelt 
and the basis of that strength. He knew that instead of em- 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1903 445 

barking on a safe voyage, he would really be facing many 
chances of shipwreck and the certainty of a hard and perhaps 
a bitter fight. He realized, as he wrote to Senator Scott, that 
the fight might drive a wedge into the party whose strength 
he had done so much to consolidate. Notwithstanding his 
close alliance with big business interests, he had always wanted 
to represent the whole people ; and he may well have shrunk, 
as a result of a division in the party, from being forced to repre- 
sent, even in appearance, only a class or factional interest. Ap- 
parently he had made up his mind, after Mr. McKinley's assas- 
sination, that the Presidency was not for him — that, even though 
he could get it, the game, as it had been played, was not worth 
the candle. 

His political career, theretofore, had been a practically un- 
interrupted series of successes. Little by little he had dis- 
armed much of the opposition and prejudice which had greeted 
his first appearance in politics. With no more official power 
than a dozen others had possessed, he had won for himself, as 
a matter of personal prerogative, a unique position in the party 
and with the people. In proportion as his power and its re- 
sponsibilities increased, he had sought to represent something 
more than a business or a partisan interest. He had sought 
to represent a general popular interest, which embraced all 
classes and all sections. He was persuading people to believe 
in his good faith as a national leader. Why should he risk 
the most valued aspect of his leadership by engaging in a nec- 
essarily bitter and precarious fight — one in which the advantage 
of position would be on one side of his opponent, which would 
revive all the old animosities, and which, whether he won or 
lost, would leave him with a divided following and possibly 
a diminished prestige. Even from the point of view of personal 
ambition, would he not bulk larger in the history of the country 
by remaining the indispensable Prime Minister to any Republi- 
can President and by broadening still farther the scope and 
deepening the foundations of his unique personal political 
edifice ? 

I do not wish to imply that Mr. Hanna scorned the Presi- 
dency, and that in renouncing any attempt to get it he was 
not making a sacrifice. He had an almost superstitious respect 



446 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

for the office and probably would have liked to fill it more than, 
he ever admitted to anybody. But he was not willing to pay 
the price, and in refusing to pay the price, he should have the 
credit, not merely of a shrewd calculation of comparative costs, 
but of a genuine disposition towards personally disinterested 
action. No man would fight harder for an honor or a prize 
to which he believed himself fairly entitled. No man was more 
modest and hesitating in claiming an honor to which his title 
was dubious. He renounced a contest, not only because it 
might cost him too much, but also because the party and per- 
haps the country might have to pay too high a price. And 
there can be little doubt that, with his usual insight into the 
complexities of a particular human situation, he had made the 
decision which, had he lived, would have best contributed to his 
cherished patriotic and personal interests. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

THE DEATH OF MARK HANNA 

As has been frequently intimated in the foregoing pages, 
Mr. Hanna had not been for years a thoroughly well man. 
Particularly since his entrance into politics the handicap of 
certain physical infirmities had been constantly increasing, 
and had been the cause of grave alarm to his family and friends. 
The strain of his very active and wearing political life had mani- 
festly been telling on his strength. He had been often advised 
and implored to go away and take a long rest, but he always 
refused. He was a man who did not know how to rest, and 
who became unhappy whenever he was deprived of his regular 
occupations and his familiar surroundings. 

He was born with an exceptionally strong physique, and 
throughout his active life could under ordinary circumstances 
stand an enormous amount of work and strain. He was what 
used to be called a sanguine man — that is, a man of active 
disposition, red blood, high spirits and unflagging energy. 
This gift of abundant energy was never diminished by physical 
excesses. He was a total abstainer until past forty, and there- 
after his consumption of alcohol was confined to an occasional 
glass of claret with his meals. He was not even a very large 
eater. His usual breakfast, for instance, consisted of a couple of 
soft-boiled eggs. He was not particularly addicted to tea or 
coffee, and ate fresh meat in moderation. His favorite dish of 
meat was corned-beef hash, which was made for him according 
to a very delectable recipe by a cook named Maggie, who had 
lived with the family for many years. One of Mr. Hanna's 
peculiar ways of entertaining was to invite guests to partake 
of Maggie's corned-beef hash for breakfast on Sunday morning. 
He also liked chipped beef, bacon and small deer-foot sausages. 
He was a great bread eater, but had no particular relish for 
cakes or sweets. The dessert which he preferred was a plain 

447 



448 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

rice pudding as prepared by his excellent cook. Altogether 
his appetite seemed to run in the direction of starchy foods, — 
such as green corn, among vegetables, — and whatever he liked 
he liked very much. Perhaps he came nearer to excess in 
smoking than in any other physical habit. He had his own 
special brand of somewhat strong cigars, which had been care- 
fully selected, and of which he consumed about a dozen a 
day. 

Energetic, however, as he was by disposition, he was not 
physically an active man. He belonged to the generation of 
Americans who took no exercise. One could not by the ut- 
most effort of the imagination associate Mr. McKinley and 
Mr. Hanna with a game of tennis ; and when a tennis player 
was actually installed in the White House, a political revolu- 
tion was evidently impending. Mark Hanna did not even 
enjoy open air and the country. He was essentially an indoor 
and a city man. The one kind of outdoor life which amused 
him was yachting or boating — particularly on the Lakes. He 
would occasionally take a drive, but late in life even this mild 
form of physical activity ceased to attract. The only stirring 
up which his body received came as the incidental result of 
the mental stimulus and excitement resulting from a keenly 
interesting occupation. Public speaking, for instance, was 
physically refreshing to him, because it afforded Avholesome 
exertion both to body and mind. 

There was nothing, however, in Mr. Hanna's physical habits 
which need have handicapped his work or shortened his life. 
His fundamental trouble seems to have been a legacy from the 
attack of typhoid fever from which he suffered in 1867. He 
was subject to attacks of congestion, which would send the 
l)lood to his head and cause him to faint. Sometimes they 
would last for several hours, throughout which his hands would 
be clenched and his body would become rigid. If he passed a 
year without a spell of this kind, he was lucky. They might 
be caused by indigestion, by a cold, or even by anxiety or emo- 
tion. If he ate a hearty meal and immediately after plunged 
into severe mental exertion, he was apt to suffer. The attacks 
Avere not, however, regarded seriously by the family. They 
usually yielded to simple remedies, and as soon as they were 



THE DEATH OF MARK HANNA 449 

over Mr, Hanna immediately recovered his strength and was 
up again and doing business the same day. They indicated, 
however, an imperfection in the circulation of the blood, which, 
as he grew older, might well have other effects. 

In 1899 his knees began to give him some trouble. The 
difficulty was diagnosed as rheumatism, but it proved eventu- V 
ally to be an increasing chalky deposit on the knee joints, 
which gradually affected his finger joints as well. After this 
ailment fastened on him, he was always suffering more or less 
pain, and when he made speeches and was compelled to be long 
on his feet his suffering was acute. It was to get rid of this 
discomfort that he went abroad in the summer of 1899. Baths 
at Aix-les-Bains were prescribed, and Mr. Hanna took them 
conscientiously for three weeks. But he refused to submit 
to an after-cure in Switzerland, and during the three following 
weeks hurried rapidly over a large part of Europe. He was 
always a bad patient, just as he was always a man who scorned 
to take precautions against sources of contagion and infection. 
He would not submit to hygienic dictation — even when he was 
threatened with illness. 

The cure at Aix did him no permanent good, and thereafter 
he suffered from minor ailments — none of which prevented 
him from continuing his work, but all of which taken together 
indicated that his body was yielding under the strain imposed 
by his way of living. But he was not an apprehensive man, and 
he was too much interested in what he was doing to listen to 
any prudential advice. His wife soon began to realize that 
he was wound up too tight and was running too fast. She 
tells of warning him. "I don't know how you feel about it," 
she said, "but to me you behave like a person who is under 
some strong excitement, who is rushing onward and cannot 
stop." He admitted that she was right, but he refused even 
to discuss the matter of drawing back. "I am going on," was 
his final word. He continued his unremitting and almost 
feverish activity, and for a w^hile stood it fairly well. But in 
1903 there were premonitions of a breakdown. Before be- 
ginning his long and strenuous stumping tour in the fall, he 
went off on a yachting trip for a month. The rest did him 
little good, because the boat was too much in port, where there 



450 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WOKK 

were people to see and big dinners to be eaten. After his re- 
turn to Cleveland he was confined to his bed for a while, but 
he pulled himself together, and to his own intense discomfort, 
went through the most arduous and exciting stumping tour 
of his career. The way in which he sometimes felt and suffered 
during that tour is indicated by the story which he told one 
cold autumn evening to Colonel Herrick, and which is related 
in the last chapter. 

After the election his immediate presence in Washington 
was required. An extra session of Congress had been called 
to deal with Cuban reciprocity. At the time he left Cleveland 
he looked extremely worn and debilitated. All his friends 
urged him to quit. Mrs. Hanna, too, was not well, and wanted 
to remain at home. But he insisted that both of them should 
go. He asserted that he had plenty of strength for his work 
and that they could save themselves by declining mvitations 
to dinner. Such was their understanding, and they acted up 
to it. Between the beginning of November and Christmas 
they went out very rarely. On Tuesday, December 15, Mr. 
Hanna had a severe attack of the grip. He had planned to 
go to New York on Thursday for a meeting of the Civic Federa- 
tion, and then to join Mrs. Hanna in Cleveland for the Christ- 
mas holidays. But on Thursday morning he was so miserable 
that it did not look safe to let him go alone. As Mrs. Hanna 
was in poor health, it was decided that Miss Mary Phelps, for 
many years the companion and friend of Mrs. Hanna, should 
accompany him. Mr. Hanna slept during the journey and 
that night had a little fever. Nevertheless he spent the whole 
of Friday at the meeting of the Civic Federation and in the 
evening attended a dinner of the McKinley Memorial Associa- 
tion. His fever still hung on, but it did not prevent him from 
continuing the next day his attendance of the sessions of the 
Federation. The dinner of that organization was scheduled 
for the same night. During the afternoon Mr. Hanna felt so 
ill that he decided to give up the dinner, but to drop in about 
nine o'clock and make a short speech. After dinner, however, 
he was taken with a severe chill, and was put to bed. His 
local physician. Dr. George E. Brewer, dosed him with the 
strongest stimulants. The chill was succeeded by a raging 



THE DEATH OF MARK HANNA 451 

fever. At midnight his temperature was 103^, and he did not 
sleep until towards morning. 

The next day, however, his temperature returned to normal, 
and he insisted upon going home to Cleveland for Christmas. 
Miss Phelps protested, but he would have his way. They 
left on Wednesday, the twenty-third, in the private car of the 
president of the New York Central Railroad, and reached 
home safely the next day. On Christmas there was a large 
party for dinner, and on Sunday Mr. Hanna drove across 
Cleveland to see his son, D. R, Hanna. The day after he was 
at his office in the Perry -Payne building and put in an immense 
amount of work during the following week. But on one occa- 
sion he called for Scotch whiskey to keep him going, which was 
unprecedented with him. On January 4 he went to Chicago 
for a visit to the dentist and to engage his accommodations for 
the approaching National Convention. Miss Phelps accom- 
panied him and states that after a short session with the dentist 
in the morning the rest of the day until after midnight was 
spent in political conferences. 

A few days later, January 12, found the indefatigable invalid 
in Columbus, Ohio, for the purpose of being present at his re- 
election to the Senate. After the result was announced, he 
made the following brief address to the Legislature — the last 
public utterance of his career : — 

"Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Seventy-sixth General Assembly 
of Ohio : For the great honor that your action has conferred upon me 
to-day, I offer my most profound gratitude, appreciating the compli- 
ment, and may I not say the vindication. I also appreciate the re- 
sponsibilities which come to me at your hands by conferring upon 
me this great office. 

" I am not vain enough to assume that the result of the great victory 
in Ohio in the last campaign was a personal matter, great as has been 
my pleasure in the interests of the party at such a result. It is more 
tribute to the intelligence of the people of Ohio, when they were con- 
fronted by the propositions, such as were made the issue in that cam- 
paign. I say I attribute it to their intelligence, because the argu- 
ments and pleadings made upon every issue were well defined. There 
could be no misunderstanding as to what they meant. The time had 
come in the history of our state when the people were called upon 
to register their verdict upon great questions so all-important to our 



L 



452 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

social conditions; the principles upon which the government itself 
had been founded were on trial. 

" Proud I am, my fellow-citizens, and speaking through you members 
of this General Assembly to the people of the whole state whom I am 
to represent in the higher branch of Congress, that I go there not as a 
partisan, where the interests of my state are the issue, but as a rep- 
resentative of all the people, as a representative of all interests which 
are material to all the people, as a man to stand for you, for what are 
your interests socially, politically, industrially and commercially." 

The day, happy as it was for Mr. Hanna, was clouded by 
the sudden illness or death of two old associates, both of whom 
were on their way to Columbus. One of these men was Charles 
Foster, a friend and ally of Mr. Hanna, who had been a Repre- 
sentative in Congress, Governor of Ohio from 1880 to 1884, 
and Secretary of the Treasury during President Harrison's 
administration. He had started for Columbus, stopped en 
route to see a friend, and died at the friend's house of cerebral 
hemorrhage. The other was ex-Governor Asa Bushnell, the 
man who had appointed Mr. Hanna to the Senate and then 
ruined his own career by joining in the cabal which sought 
to prevent Mr. Hanna's first election. Mr. Bushnell was 
visited by an apoplectic stroke while on the way to the train. 
A friend, who returned to Cleveland in Mr. Hanna's car, states 
that he was both distressed and depressed by the coincidence 
of these two deaths. Only those who knew him well could 
perceive any change in his manner ; but far from well as he 
w^as at the time, he may have felt the uncertainty of his own 
life. As a matter of fact, there was an epidemic of typhoid 
at the time of his visit to Columbus, and he was there infected 
with the germ which caused his death. 

Saturday, January 16, found him back in Washington. He 
went to the Senate on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday 
mornings. On Wednesday afternoon, when Mrs. Hanna and 
Miss Phelps returned from a drive, they found Mr. Hanna 
lying down in his room at the Arlington Hotel. He assured 
them he was all right, but none the less went to bed and stayed 
there on Thursday and Friday and on Saturday until noon. 
On Sunday he was up all day until midnight. On Monday, 
V January 25, he complained of a severe toothache, which during 



/I U r 

■iUf CU^- lA/y /y)^. 

It/. . 







Facsimile of the Letter written by Mr. Hanna during his 
l*iNAL Illness to President Roosevelt 



THE DEATH OF MARK HANNA 453 

the evoninpr became so bad that his physician, Dr. Rixie, wa.s 
called, and morphine was administered. Nevertheless he 
was up the next day, and enjoyed very much a visit from his 
friend Mr. Bliss. Throughout the week he was very nervous 
and was con-stantly taking soothing or stimulating riedicine 
but he continued active, and on Saturday night attended a dinner 
given by the Gridiron Club. On Sunday, January 31, he had 
Mr. James Rhodes, Mr. Bliss and Mr. Grant B. Schley for 
breakfast, and in the afternoon conferred with Mr. James J 
Hill. He was continually protesting that he was all right, but 
his hands were like ice. He hardly slept at all that night and 
complamed that every nerve in his body ached. He was sick 
Monday and Tuesday, and on Wednesday, February 3 two 
weeks after he was first taken down, Dr. George Brewer came on 
from New York and diagnosed his complaint a.s typhoid fever 
In the beginning it did not look as if the attack would necessar- 
ily be fatal; and probably it would not have been fatal, in case 
Mr. Hanna's general condition had not been so enfeebled. He 
continued for a day or two to transact some business in bed 
On the afternoon of February 5 Mr. Dover went to Mr. Hanna's 
room and consulted him about some matters which demanded 
the Senator's attention. When they had been disposed of 
Mr. Dover told him that President Roosevelt had called during 
the morning in order to inquire after his health. This bit of 
attention touched him deeply, and an hour after Mr. Dover's 
departure he called for pencil and paper and scrawled the 
following note, which perhaps as much as any single utterance 
of his life, reveals the quality of Mr. Hanna's personal feelings: 

"My dear Mr. President: — 

"You touched a tender spot, old man, when you called per- 
sonally to inquire after fme] this a.m. I may be worse, be- 
fore I can be better, but all the same such "drops of kindness" 
are good for a fellow. 

"Sincerely yours, 
"^^'^^^y^-M. "M.A. Hanna." 

The next day a reply was received from the President accom- 
panied by a note stating that it was to be shown to the Senator 



454 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

when Mrs. Hanna thought best. Mr. Hanna never saw the 
j.gply — which ran as follows : — 

"Feb. 6, 1904. 

"Dear Senator:— v,- u • * v.-^„ 

"Indeed it is your letter from your sick bed which is touching, 
not my visit. May you soon be with us again, old fellow, as 
strong in body and as vigorous in your leadership as ever. 

"Faithfully yours, 

"Theodore Roosevelt." 

About the middle of the preceding week, during which Mr. 
Hanna had been both in and out of bed, he had been carefully 
examined by Dr. William Osier; and as soon as his illness was 
known to be typhoid, Mrs. Hanna wanted particularly to ob- 
tain the best counsel and assistance. On Saturday Dr. Brewer 
saw Dr. Osier, who agreed to take the case, but masmuch as 
neither he nor Dr. Brewer could be in constant attendance, he 
advised sending for still another physician, whom Mr. Hanna 
liked, and who could be present all the time. They tele^aphed 
to Cleveland, consequently, for Dr. Edward Perkins Carter, 
who arrived on Monday, February 8, and who with Dr Rixie 
and Dr Osier constituted the physicians in charge. In the 
meantime Howard Melville Hanna had also been summoned 
and came at once. The physicians continued to hope that 
they could save him, until Thursday of the same week Dr 
Osier had been with him the whole of the previous night, and 
in the morning was disturbed by his apathetic condition. The 
patient himself began to lose courage and wanted to have them 
telegraph for his lawyers. During the afternoon while Mrs 
Hanna was sitting by his bedside, he seized her hand after a 
long period of immobility, and said, "Old lady, you and I are, 
on the home-stretch." She answered reassuringly but he per- 
sisted in saying that he, at least, was on the ho^ie-s^retch 
The next day, Friday, he was even more discouraged, and com 
plained that nothing did him any good. His b-ther MeM^^^ 
was called in to assure him that he could do more for himself, 
than any one else and that he must fight on and win. 

On Saturday he had his first bad sinking spell but ral led^ 
well in the evening, and excited the admiration of the doctors 



THE DEATH OF MARK HANNA 455 

by the stiff fight which he was making. On Sunday, while 
Mrs. Hanna was in the room, he seemed to be hunting for 
somethmg in his pocket. She asked if he wanted a handker- 
chief. "Yes," he answered, "I would like one, but I suppose 
I cannot have it. My wife takes them all." Mrs Hanna 
frequently used his handkerchiefs, and it was one of his jokes 
to accuse her of it and ask her why she did not buy some of 
her own. He distinguished all that day the people who were 
with him, but on Monday he was almost unconscious He died 
on Monday evening, February 15, at forty minutes past six 

I have given m detail an account of Mr. Hanna's last few 
weeks partly because the story itself reveals more vividly than 
could any attempt at characterization his personal attitude 
towards his otvti way of living. Had he been willing to take 
ordinary precautions, he might have survived many years- 
but (be It added) if he had been willing to take ordinary pre- 
cautions, he would not have been Mark Hanna. He could not 
allow scruples to interfere between himself and anything 
which he wanted to do and considered worth the doing. His 
interest and will were absolutely possessed by his various ex- 
ternal occupations. He was incapable of pausing and inquir- 
mg how far prudence would forbid him to continue his exhaust- 
mg career. His career was himself, and if he had hesitated 
or checked his pace, he would have, to his own mind, been play- 
ing the "quitter." The quality of his will, which was respon- 
sible for his peculiar achievements, which impelled and enabled 
him to nominate men for the Presidency, and to rise to one 
opportunity after another of useful service — that same quahty 
kept him going until his death. The body of the man and 
the accidents of his life were carried along on a flood of a 
powerful impulse, which did originate within the field of con- 
sciousness, and which could not be checked or guided by con- 
scious motives. He was bound to run until he dropped. 

Mr. Hanna's family wished to keep his funeral as quiet and 
unostentatious as they could, but the sense of public loss was 
so acute and widespread that the ceremonies necessarily be- 
came a state affair. His associates in the Senate and his friends 
and neighbors in Cleveland both demanded and had a right 
to give public and formal expression to their affection for Mr 



456 MAKCIS ALONZO UANNA, UlS LIFE AND WOKK 

H.mna and their grief at his death. The body Nvas not. hoNv- 
over allowed to He in state in W.u^hington. On \\ edues- 
d-u'Feb 17th. a memorial serviee was held m the Senate 
Chmuber; whieh was attended by the President, the Cabmet 
Cono-ro^s and the whole ollieial life of Washington, and wlueh 
con.'isted ehietlv of an eloquent aiid impressive addres. ot 
the Chaplam. the Rev. Kdward Everett Hale At svx o eloek 
on the s:une dav the funeral party left for Cleveland. At noon 
on Thursdav the body was earried into the audit oruun ot the 
Chamber of Commerce in that eity by Governor llerriek. 
Samuel Mather. W. B. Sanders. J. 1>. Zerbe. Andrew Squire. 
C \ Gr:v.selli, A. B. Hough and W. J. MeKmme. and tht 
samV group of friends served :vs pall-be.uvrs at^ the lunera on 
the following day. The body lay in state for twenty-four 
hours, during whieh more than 30,000 people visited the bier 
Fridav wa. a eold. bleak, windy and snowy day. The tuneral 
.orviJes were held at one o'elook. at St. Paul s Episcopal Churoh 
and were attended not merely by his elose c;..nnections. bu 
bv an extraordinary number of distinguished men rom all 
over the Ea.t and Middle West. Bishop Leonard delivered 
the eulogv. xMark Hanna's sepulehre is admirably situated 
on the bi-ow of a high hill in Lakeview Cemetery m Ueveland 
and consists of a severely simple Creek temple, designed by 
Uv. Henry Bacon, which makes an impression on its visitoi 
both of beauty and solemnity. 

There was nothing perfunctory in the gnet inspired by .Maik 
H^mna's death. Every one who knew him felt his loss .is a 
deep personal sorrow. No man in the country had so many 
friends, whom he had attached to himself by services and kind- 
nesses small and great ; and even those who felt no grie them- 
selves could not fail to be affected by the sincerity with which 
his .^ssociates mourned his death. -The most sorrowful 
scene," says Senator Spooncr. "which I ever «aw w^-^"^ t.ie 
Senate when we sat and waited for the ne.^ of Mr Hanna s 
death There was a feeling in every heart ot personal bereave- 
ment, and this feeling was. if possible, more Pronounced on 
the Democratic side than on the Republican. But it ^yl^ 
personal everywhere and made the moments -o -aited to 
the sad news, which we knew would come, the most impic.iNe 



THE DEATH OF MAItK HANNA 457 

in my life." In his oulogy of Mr. Ilannu, (Mivo.rcA in the 
Senate, Mr. Piatt of (Jonnectieut said: "When Marcus A. 
Ilanna died all the people mourned him with a grief that was 
deep and unfeigned. Something in his life and character 
endeared him to all classes. To but few men in this world 
is it given to inspire such respect and affection as did our de- 
ceased comrade and brother. HLs death saddened all. The 
sun of life was clouded and the whole air chill and dreary. It 
s(;emed as if the tie which bound his heart to every heart Piad 
been rudely sundered. While all shared the common grief, 
nowhere outside the circle of his domestic life was the mourn- 
ing so deep as among his Senatorial associates. We had learned 
to admire him for his ability, to respect him for his strength, 
to wonder at his great influence, but more than that, each had 
come to love him as a friend." 

The foregoing tribute to Mr. Hanna was delivered by Mr. 
Piatt in the Senate Chamber on April 7, 1904. Some sixteen 
Senators spoke on that occasion, including Foraker, Scott, Piatt, 
Dolliver, Beveridge, Blackburn and Daniel. Several of the 
speakers, particularly the Democrats, frankly admitted that 
in their attitude towards Mr. Hanna they had passed through 
much the same different phases of opinion as had the general 
public. They had begun by suspecting him. Little by little 
respect took the place of suspicion. Confidence was added to 
respect, and affection to confidence. The very men who could 
watch his public behavior most closely were most completely 
convinced of his good faith and loyalty, and they were most 
completely captivated by his warmth of feeling and his essen- 
tial humanity. Thus it came to pass that they watched his 
growing personal influence with wonder, but without envy 
and without protest. The Senate is notoriously jealoas of 
its independence, but never was there a suggestion that his 
power was being dictatorially used or was anything but the 
natural and desirable fruit of his personal worth and actual 
services. 

In spite of all that Mr. Hanna's friends could say in his 
praise on that day in April, it remained for a man who was 
no longer hLs friend to pronounce the most discriminating 
appreciation of his career and personality. Beginning in 1884, 



458 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

the whole of Mr. Hanna's public life had been profoundly 
influenced, first by his intimacy with Senator Foraker and then 
by their mutual alienation. In every crisis of Mr. Hanna's 
career the threatening figure of Mr. Foraker can be distinguished 
in the foreground or the background, ready, wherever possible, 
to make trouble. On the other hand, if any single man, Mr. 
Foraker himself excepted, was responsible for the abortive 
ending of what promised in the middle eighties to be an ex- 
ceptionally brilliant political career, that man was Mark 
Hanna. It is the more to Mr. Foraker's credit when, as senior 
Senator from Ohio, he was called upon to pronounce in the 
Senate the first of a series of tributes to Mr. Hanna's memory, 
that he could without any pretence of kindly feeling, sum up 
so honestly and fairly certain salient aspects of Mr. Hanna's 
achievements and disposition. The men who did injustice 
to Mr. Hanna after his death were not his personal opponents. 
They were, rather, certain political opponents whose formulas 
were so narrow and whose prejudices were so dense that their 
vision of the essential value of the man was obscured by their 
disapproval of certain aspects of his work and doctrine. His 
personality inspired sympathy and respect among all who 
became acquainted with him ; and under favorable conditions 
the sympathy usually became affection and the respect admira- 
tion. His devotion to his friends aroused a corresponding 
warmth of feeling in them. In a very real sense he lived for 
and among other people. 

He was not merely fond of companionship; he was quite 
/dependent on it — particularly the companionship of men. 
Throughout his life he always liked to live, play and eat in 
the midst of company. Mrs. Hanna never knew how many 
guests he would bring home to dinner ; but there would almost 
always be somebody — even when he was an obscure Cleveland 
business man. After his public career began, this tireless 
sociability increased rather than diminished. Just as during 
his early life he did his best to bring to his house all the inter- 
esting visitors to Cleveland, particularly the actors, so after 
he went to Washington, he remained as curious about people 
as ever, and as much interested in them. 

During most of his career as Senator he and Mrs. Hanna 



THE DEATH OF MARK HANNA 459 

lived at the Arlington Hotel ; but he occupied a large suite 
and practically kept house. His cook, Maggie, was provided 
with a special kitchen, which had formerly been a bathroom, 
and in which she provided for almost all the meals of the family. 
He was constantly entertaining. His Sunday morning break- 
fast parties had a special reputation; but his dinners were 
scarcely less popular. Whenever prominent men, strangers 
or not, registered at the hotel, Mr. Hanna always managed 
to meet them ; and they usually received an invitation to 
dinner. He was not only expansive but inquisitive. He 
learned, not from the printed, but from the spoken, word. He 
acquired what Mr. Foraker describes as his "almost unnatural 
knowledge of human nature" from the zest with which he 
seized on every opportunity of getting in touch with other men, 
and from the powerful and candid intelligence which he brought 
to the digestion of this social experience. 

Of course, he did not seek companionship consciously for the 
purpose of looking into the minds of other men. He sought 
it either to transact business, to exchange ideas or merely to 
have a good time. His insight into human nature was the 
unconscious by-product of his sociability. But in any event, 
he craved some external occupation which was shared with 
other people. If nothing better offered, he would play cards. 
During the evening, in the absence of male guests, his family 
would have to play with him, and wherever he lived he collected 
a group of friends, upon whom he could usually depend for a 
game of whist, and later of bridge. In Washington, Senators 
Aldrich, Spooner, Allison and others were frequently found 
at his card table. In Cleveland there were a coterie of old 
friends, including W. J. McKinnie, A. B. Hough, J. B. Zerbe, 
"Jack" Yates, E. P. Williams, Frederick E. Rittman and 
others with whom he habitually played. During the last 
years of his life, when in Cleveland, he spent a great deal of his 
time in the Union Club at the card table. He would lunch 
there and play all the afternoon, and on Saturday the whole 
evening up to midnight. He never seemed to tire of any 
occupation which he thoroughly enjoyed. A small stake was 
always waged on these games. 

Interested as he was in his game of whist, he never allowed 



460 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

it to degenerate into an unsocial sport. He was not one of 
your silent players, who are intent only on winning. He talked 
constantly and his friends say that he talked more than was 
good for the quality of his game. A stupid play would be 
pounced upon immediately and made the subject of emphatic 
comment. And it was not merely the incidents of the card 
table which he insisted on discussing. Any matter of local or 
general interest might come up for comment, and he was con- 
tinually on the lookout for a chance to joke about the peccadilloes 
of his friends. There were few of them who escaped some kind 
of rigging. 

Like most gregarious men, he liked to be socially conspicuous. 
He liked, that is, the idea of being prominent and popular 
among his own people, and of seeing himself reflected large 
in the eye of the world. An old friend states that he enjoyed 
going to the Opera House, sitting in his box, and being pointed 
out as the owner of the theatre. But this trait, in so far as it 
existed, was an amiable weakness. He was entirely without 
mere conceit, and he consistently under- rather than over-valued 
his own abilities. Flattery had little or no effect upon him. 
He was as little pleased with complimentary but exaggerated 
public tributes as he was with his abundant portion of unjust 
abuse. But his expansive disposition craved approval, and 
it was partly this desire for approval which always kept him so 
closely in touch with public opinion. He knew his own people 
so well that he divined instinctively what they would approve. 
Strong as was his individual will, it always sought an expression 
consistent with what he understood and felt to be the popular 
will. 

Although he had hearty personal dislikes as well as likes, 
he was far from being vindictive. Just as his anger would 
quickly cool, so a personal repulsion might easily be worn 
down. His natural tendency was to like other men, and if 
he continued to dislike them, it was usually because he found 
them by experience personally untrustworthy. He required 
his associates to be, as he was himself, fair, frank, and honest. 
He forgave anything in a man quicker than a lie. When he 
said, "That man is a liar," he was going as far as he could in 
condemnation. He never deceived anybody himself, and he 



TEE DEATH OF MARK HANNA 461 

rarely got his own way with people by devious methods. He 
did not promise to do a thing unless he was sure he could do 
it ; and if he promised anything, it was as good as done. In 
living up to such standards, he was, of course, helped by his 
quickness and soundness of judgment. When any demand 
was made upon him, he usually knew pretty well and pretty 
soon how far he could yield ; and he escaped in that way en- 
tanglements in which other sympathetic but less sure-footed 
men are caught. 

Mr. Elmer Dover, his private secretary for seven years, 
states that never during that interval did he pass an unpleasant 
word or an unkind criticism. He could be gruff and brusque 
with importunate callers, but he was never discourteous to 
people who had any claim on his time. He did not find fault 
with his immediate associates and assistants. Neither did 
he praise them. He showed his confidence merely by increas- 
ing their work, their responsibility, and, if necessary, their 
remuneration. All his associates testify that Mr. Dover was 
invaluable to him, that he imposed upon his secretary the most 
delicate and onerous personal missions and negotiations. But 
he never bestowed upon Mr. Dover any word of commenda- 
tion, except on one occasion when a group of friends were enter- 
taining Mr. Dover at dinner. 

Mr. Hanna did not regularly belong to any church. When 
a young man he used to attend church on Sundays, but later 
in life Sunday became his day of social recreation, during which 
his house was even more full of people than usual, and he 
rarely heard a sermon. His disposition was obviously not 
religious or devout, and he was too sincere to pretend an interest 
merely for public purposes. On the other hand, he contrib- 
uted freely, not merely to the building funds of churches, but to 
church work and charity. His gifts were not confined to any 
denomination or to any class of work. The Catholic Sisters 
received liberal assistance, but not less liberal were his gifts 
to various Protestant institutions of all denominations. Mr. 
Hanna was not knowTi, except within a limited circumfer- 
ence in Cleveland, as a particularly charitable man. Yet 
throughout his life he was a sedulous contributor to all kinds 
of good causes. Mr. Lucius F. Mellen, who for twenty-five 



462 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

years was, as he himself says, perhaps the sturdiest beggar for 
charitable purposes in Cleveland, states that never once did 
Mr. Hanna turn him away empty-handed. When Mr. Hanna 
had confidence in a solicitor, as he had in Mr. Mellen, or in 
a Sister of Charity, he merely took out his cheque-book and 
asked them how much they wanted. He did not rub his hands 
and promise to have the matter investigated. He was not 
a scientific philanthropist. He was simply a kind-hearted, 
generous man, who wanted to help people in distress, and who 
in helping them wanted to avoid ostentation and publicity. 
When during a political campaign he made any considerable 
donation to a charitable cause or institution, he particularly 
requested that no public announcement of it should be made 
until after the election. He was utterly discomfited when 
on one occasion during his first stumping tour, Mr. Benjamin 
Butterworth related to the audience certain incidents which 
illustrated his generous warmth of feeling towards other 
people. 

For the most part his gifts consisted of small sums contrib- 
uted to needy causes or people. There were, indeed, one or 
two institutions to which he rendered systematic assistance. 
The Huron Street Hospital, for instance, in Cleveland received 
from him in all about $15,000. Late in life he became inter- 
ested in Kenyon College and donated $75,000 as a fund with 
which to build a dormitory. But the acts of generosity, on 
which his friends liked to dwell, usually concerned individuals 
in whose need or distress he happened to be interested. 

Some of these incidents deserve to be related. One rainy 
day some time in the early nineties, two Sisters of Charity 
called on him for a contribution with which to buy a horse. 
Their horse had died and they were seeking assistance to- 
ward the purchase of another. If Mr. Hanna had given 
them $10, they would have gone away well satisfied. But 
after he had heard their story, he pretended that he had ex- 
hausted his charity fund for that month, and brusquely asked 
them to return some other time. Upon leaving his office they 
were followed by his coachman, who insisted on putting them 
in a carriage and driving them home. As they were getting 
out, the coachman inquired: "Where shall I put the horse? 



THE DEATH OF MARK HANNA 463 

Mr. Hanna told me that he had given it to you." Another 
case was that of a woman who had inherited a small house 
from her father. Times were bad. There was a mortgage 
on the property which was being foreclosed. A real estate 
dealer went to Mr. Hanna, knowing him to be a shrewd business 
man, told him that the property could be bought for less than 
its value, and asked for authority to bid it in. Mr. Hanna did 
not know the woman, but he was disgusted at the man's heart- 
lessness. He commissioned a lawyer to attend the sale and 
buy the property. The mortgage was transferred to Mr. 
Hanna and was not recorded, Mr. Hanna held the property 
until times improved, and then sold it for a good price. After 
paying the mortgage, the balance of the money was turned over 
to the woman, who never knew how near she came to losing 
her inheritance, or of Mr. Hanna's contribution to her welfare. 

He was, of course, even more generous with needy friends. 
He would lend them money on what was often worthless secur- 
ity. Mr. James Dempsey was continually asked to investigate 
such security, but he was warned that in any event the loan 
was to stand. He recalls many instances of such loans which 
were never repaid, and which the lender never asked to have 
repaid. After Mr. Hanna's death his executors destroyed a 
basketful of acknowledgments of personal debts. They had 
been accumulating for years, and no attempt had ever been 
made to collect them. Neither was this negligence due to any 
mere looseness in money matters. While not, of course, an 
economical man, he was conscientious and systematic about 
his personal expenditures. He knew how much he was spending 
and upon what it was spent. He never submitted to extortion 
and he had a hatred of mere waste. 

If he was sometimes lavish in his gifts and heedless about 
his personal loans, it was because such expenditures belonged 
to a different class. In neither case was he buying anything. 
He was giving something away, and he was always giving with 
it a part of himself. The weightiest tribute to this aspect of 
his nature comes from a man whom he knew only late in life, 
and who himself was, as Mr. Hanna said of Mr. McKinley, 
more Scotch than Irish in temperament — Senator Orville 
Piatt: "His loyalty was something wonderful. With his 



464 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

friends, and no man had more friends, it carried hin^/^^arly to 
ex remes. I often thought that he of all men would be willmg 
to die for his friends. Friendship has its burdens as well as its 
joys, and he took upon himself all its burdens as easily and as 
heartily as he shared its joys." 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

CONCLUSION 

A DISCRIMINATING estimate of Mark Hanna's public career 
must account, first of ail, for tiie apparent disproportion be- 
tween what he achieved and what he proposed or was equipped 
to achieve. He had no more training for public Hfe than hun- 
dreds of other business men who dabbled in politics. His 
own will, strong as it was, and his abilities, exceptional as they 
were, account for only a certain portion of his success. To 
be sure, he willed and contrived the nomination of McKinley, 
just as he willed and contrived many other deeds which were 
of decisive importance in his career. But he did not plan his 
own political self-aggrandizement. Dominant as was his in- 
stinct for leadership, he never sought to concentrate in his 
own hands the various strings of his personal power. Through- 
out his career his effective influence gathered momentum from 
forces independent of its original source and of his own con- 
scious purposes. Like a tropical bamboo, it derived much 
of its new growth from shoots which were rooted in fresh soil. 
Both he and his friends were amazed > at his own triumphal 
progress; and they may well have been amazed, because his 
career was without precedent and is not likely to have any 
imitators. 

Inasmuch as Mark Hanna was not a usurper and his career 
was not a tour de force, only one explanation will account for v 
his peculiar success. He must have embodied in his own life V 
and purposes some vital American social arid economic tradi- 
tion, which gave his personality, individual as it was, some- 
thing more than an individual meaning and impulse ; and he 
must have embodied this tradition all the more effectively be- 
cause he was not more than half conscious of it. Mark Hanna 
could not represent anything unless he himself was what he 
represented. In truth, Mr. Hanna did embody the most vital 
2h 465 



466 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

social and economic tradition in American history — the tradi- 
tion, that is, of the pioneer. He was an incarnation of the spirit 
and methods of the men who seized and cleared the pubHc 
domain, developed its natural resources, started and organized 
an industrial and commercial system and determined most 
of our political and social habits and forms. All the salient 
characteristics of the pioneer are writ clear and large in Mr. 
Hanna's disposition and achievements. Indeed, they are, I 
believe, writ larger and clearer therein than in any other one 
accessible book. If Mark Hanna had not lived and tried and 
succeeded, something might have been permanently lacking in 
our understanding of the spirit and methods of the pioneer. 

The foregoing assertions may well strike the average reader 
as doubtful. How can a man whose successful business career 
began after the Civil War and who did not become prominent 
in politics until 1896 — how can the life of such a man embody 
with particular success the spirit and methods of the men who 
conquered the American wilderness? During the culminating 
period of his life pioneering in its primitive sense had practi- 
cally ceased. The wilderness had disappeared. The United 
States had become more like a European country than like the 
United States of 1830. The gulf which had been created be- 
tween the America of 1830 and the America of 1900 would be 
fairly well measured by the gulf between the manner of life 
of the lean, hardy frontiersman and that of the affluent Cleve- 
land merchant. 

The difficulty is obvious, but it is not conclusive. The men 
who originate an economic and social impulse and start it off 
on a career of conquest do not bestow upon it a complete ex- 
pression. They exhibit its fresh vigor, and they overcome 
the most serious obstacles in its path; but their expression 
of it is necessarily crude and partial. The completer revela- 
tion must wait on history and experience. Generations must 
pass before a national social and economic movement develops 
fully its own latent tendencies and capabilities. The primitive 
pioneers imposed their social, political and economic ideas upon 
the country, but by the time their ideas had become part of the 
national tradition, the conditions in which they originated had 
changed. After the Civil War the pioneer system had to meet 



CONCLUSION 467 

the shock of new economic and social forces. Under the stimu- 
lus of these new opportunities and new responsibilities it be- 
came in certain respects a new system. The vitality of the 
movement was depleted by the effort to adapt itself to more 
complicated social and economic surroundings, but this effort 
and its results proved to be peculiarly illuminating. Its strength 
and its weakness became more clearly distinguishable and more 
fully revealed than ever before, and the hand-writing of its 
history became far more legible. Inasmuch as only within the 
past fifteen years has the pioneer been granted his proper place 
in American economic and social development, it is not un- 
natural that during the same years there flourished and died 
the most complete single embodiment of pioneer purposes and 
methods. 

The primary economic task of the pioneer was that of appro- 
priating and developing the land and natural resources of a 
continent, — a task which combined and confused individual 
and social profits. The combination and confusion was re- 
flected in the human nature of the period. The early pioneer 
was an aggressive, energetic, hopeful, grasping individual. He 
worked and fought primarily for his own advantage, but his 
individualism did not prevent him from being the maker of a 
society. In an economic environment which provided oppor- 
tunities for all, men could fight for themselves without cherishing 
ill-will or incurring it. As a matter of fact, the pioneer over- 
flowed with good-will and good-fellowship. He and his neigh- 
bors were all striving for the same port. Their contests were 
merely a good-natured race for the quickest voyage and the 
biggest market. 

From the beginning they recognized and acted on the theory 
that the individual and social profits were indistinguishable. 
They conceived it to be the business of their government, as 
the agent of social betterment, to assist them in attaining their 
personal ends. The public interest, which government was 
supposed to promote, was conceived chiefly as a collection of 
individual interests ; and the way to promote it was to stimu- 
late individual economic activity. Hence the passion for 
"public improvements" which possessed the pioneer states 
and their frequent inability, in making those improvements, 



I 



468 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

to distinguish between the really private and the really public 
interests involved. It was during these years, long before 
corporate enterprise had assumed economic importance, that 
"special interests" established their control over state legisla- 
tures. It was during these years that the practice of making 
American business depend on American politics had its be- 
ginning. . Ill 
In the meantime American business was ceasmg to be local 
and was becoming increasingly national in its operations. As 
it became national, the successors of the pioneers began to lose 
their suspicion of the Central Government. They began to 
understand that the nation could contribute more effectually 
to the stimulation of economic activity than could the states. 
Stephen Douglas, rather than a Whig, was the politician who 
first proposed to make land grants out of the Public Domain 
to a railroad. The Civil War accelerated the change. It split 
the Democratic party and converted the best of the pioneer 
Democrats into Republicans, who were ready to use the powers 
of the Central Government to redeem a national responsibility. 
Washington became the headquarters from which was directed 
a comprehensive scheme of state-aided business. The agricul- 
tural states obtained the gift of free land to homesteaders. 
The industrial states secured and kept, as their share of the 
bargain, among the several localities, a high protective tariff. 
Oth^er interests were satisfied by free mines, timber and pasture. 
The railroads claimed land grants as their share of the spoil. 
Business of all kinds was encouraged by loose corporation laws. 
In return for all these privileges the various special interests 
were required only to make use of them. They named their 
own liquor and drank it when and where and how they pleased. 
Public and private interests were still conceived to be substan- 
tially identical, and the national economic interest a compre- 
hensive collection of special interests. 

This Republican economic policy, to the perpetuation of 
which the public career of Mark Hanna was devoted, is plainly 
the adaptation to new conditions of the earlier purposes and 
methods of the pioneer Democrats. The continuity of the 
tradition is unmistakable. It consisted fundamentally of am 
attempt to convert the spirit and methods of the pioneer fromi 



CONCLUSION 469 

an agency of local economic development into an agency of 
national economic development. The pioneer spirit and 
method, transformed in order to meet larger opportunities and 
responsibilities, was incorporated into the heart of the national 
economic system. In one way or another every kind of busi- 
ness was obtaining state aid, and was dependent upon state 
policy for Its prosperity. At the very moment when both busi- 
ness and politics were being modified by specialization and 
organization, business itself was being fastened irretrievably 
to politics. And the association, dangerous as it is both for 
business and politics, lies deep and ineradicable in the American 
democratic tradition. Democracy has always meant to Ameri- 
cans a political system which contributed, by whatever means 
to their individual economic well-being. The pioneer economy! 
both in Its local and national phases, was merely the first at- 
tempt to realize this purpose. 

To the generation of business men who came to the front 
after the Civil War and grew up in the midst of this system 
It seemed like the order of nature. It assuredly accomplished 
the purpose for which it was intended, and its success was so 
considerable that it was accepted as a matter of course by the 
dommant mass of opinion. Mr. Hanna himself and many 
others like him was as much of a pioneer in his own region of 
work as had been the men who with axe and gun pushed their 
way into the wilderness. He developed mines, discovered or 
created markets, built furnaces, improved mechanical processes, 
organized industries and started commercial currents on their 
course. He watched among his OAvn people the gradual accumula- 
tion of social benefits which resulted from the stimulation of 
mdividual enterprise, and these benefits seemed to him, not 
the result of temporary conditions, but the normal and perma- 
nent effect of stimulating individual business energy. Neither 
he nor the men of his generation could understand why the sys- 
tem should not continue of equal benefit to the individual and 
to society. 

Nevertheless, certain parts of this economic system were 
passing out of the pioneer stage, in which there was a rough 
approximation of individual and social benefits. The essential 
character of pioneer economics consisted of an abundance of 



470 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

opportunities due chiefly to a superfluity of accessible natural 
resources. But even in a country as richly endowed as the 
United States, natural resources had a limit. As soon as the 
process of their appropriation had reached a certain stage and 
had given their proprietors a certain advantage over their future 
competitors, the machinery began to creak. Under such con- 
ditions the state encouragement of private enterprise assumed 
a different appearance and began to look less like a system ot 
social and more like a system of individual benefits Society 
might profit, but not in the same proportion to the profits 
which the state was showering on the individual. In tact tne 
balance of the whole system was upset as soon as natural re- 
sources became even a little scarce and as soon as the corre- 
sponding artificial opportunities, created by state law, becarne 
even comparatively inaccessible. Not long after the war pub- 
lic opinion, in those parts of the country which were suffer- 
ing from local business depression, began to blame the system 
for their privations, and began to criticise the way m which 
the appropriated economic power was being exercised ihe 
discontent increased, and thereafter the national policy of state- 
stimulated enterprise had to bear the burden of hostile pohtical 

agitation. , ... , 

The foregoing situation affords the clew to the political con- 
tests of the last twenty years. Just in proportion as natural 
resources and artificial economic opportunities were appropri- 
ated and developed, public and private interests did not coin- 
cide to the same extent as formerly. The private interests 
which had received public assistance were driven by the neces- 
sities of their position to seek the continuance of this assistance 
on other than public grounds. Business prosperity was en- 
tangled in a system whose assumptions no longer corresponded 
with the facts of American economic life. Every agitation for 
economic reform forced voters to choose between alternative 
evils They could not withdraw the various privileges which 
business had been enjoying without disturbing confidence and 
checking expansion, yet they could not perpetuate the advan- 
tages enjoyed by certain kinds of business without making the 
state increasingly responsible for flagrant economic inequalities. 
The man who remained true to the traditional system was 



CONCLUSION 471 

obliged to countenance and overlook many grave political and 
economic abuses. The man who attacked the traditional sys- 
tem was obliged to injure many innocent people, disappoint 
the immediate expectations of many more for a higher standard 
of living, and launch his fellow-countrymen on a career of dan- 
gerous economic and political reorganization. 

Mark Hanna proved to be the ablest and most successful 
supporter of the traditional system developed by the crisis. 
He supported it, because he had become accustomed to its 
beneficial effects, without being aware that these benefits might 
be diminished by the gradual intrusion of scarcity values into 
the national economy. In his speeches he always assumed 
that economic opportunit es were as abundant and as accessible 
as ever, and he always refers to the country's natural resources 
as inexhaustible. He was quite sincere in failing to recognize 
the change and its consequences, the proof of his sincerity being 
the harmony between the old tradition and his own business 
and social habits and practices. Many of his associates reaped 
their profits from the pioneer system, and supported it by word 
and deed, but ceased to be the kind of men in which the system 
originated, and which gave to it its meaning. But Mark Hanna 
always remained a pioneer, both in his business practice and in 
his purposes, feelings and ideas. His own life embodied the 
mixture of individual and social purposes characteristic of the 
pioneer. 

As we have seen, he always remained essentially local in his 
business enterprises and ambitions and always had the benefit 
of persistent and familiar social surroundings. While certain 
of his friends were becoming specialists in financial and business 
organization, he remained an all-round man, personally com- 
petent to manage every aspect of his extensive and complicated 
business. He was at once salesman, technician, financier, 
superintendent, organizer and personal chief ; and he was all 
these things because he had not hardened down into a special 
kind of a man. He was every kind of a man demanded by his 
own pursuits and interests. Above all, he never became that 
special kind of a man known as a money-maker. As with the 
pioneer, business was to him the most interesting sort of life 
provided by his own society. It was an intensely human occu- 



472 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

pation in which human motives were ever present, and around 
which he himself gathered a group of essentially human values. 
Being every kind of a man demanded by his occupations 
and interests, he inevitably became a politician as well as 
a business man. Personal participation in politics was an 
essential duty and joy of the pioneers. They associated in 
their OAvn lives public and private motives just as they asso- 
ciated public and private interests in making state policies. 
His participation in politics was not determined by business 
motives any more than his participation in business was deter- 
mined exclusively by business motives. He took it up because 
it was intrinsically so interesting, and he became more and 
more absorbed in it because a personal devotion to the careers 
of certain political friends made it finally much more interesting 
than business. Of course as a politician he could not help 
representing business, because business was a part of himself 
because business was in his eyes not simply money-making, 
but the most necessary kind of social labor. 

When the traditional system was attacked, his lifelong 
habits, associations and connections enabled him to defend it, 
not only with entire sincerity, but with abundant resources. 
He could keep personally in touch with every American interest 
which would be injured by the attack. He could personally exer- 
cise all the qualities most needed for the defence. He developed ^ 
suddenly into an able campaign manager, who fought his troops 
and provided for their subsistence with unprecedented skill 
and energy. Yet, if he had been nothing but a campaign mana- 
ger, he would have been far less efficient. The best work he 
performed for his cause was that of arousing and uniting in its 
favor an obviously hesitating public opinion. He brought 
many of the American people back temporarily to a sense of 
the value of their traditional economic system. 

No American political leader ever appealed to the electorate 
so frankly as an advocate of pioneer economics. He asked his 
audiences to vote for the system under which they and their 
country had become prosperous and which could not be attacked 
or modified without a certain sacrifice of prosperity. He was 
accused of appealing to selfish and materialistic motives, but 
such derogatory epithets meant nothing to him or to his audi- 



CONCLUSION 473 

ences. They knew that he was seeking to satisfy without 
equivocation their deepest and most active interest — the inter- 
est of individual economic ameUoration. The American demo- 
cratic state had promised its citizens prosperity and comfort 
and had recognized the responsibility by doing its best to stimu- 
late economic activity. He asked them to continue the 
same policy with the expectation of reaching the same result, 
and his voice raised a responsive echo in their minds. They 
would not have listened to him merely as the spokesman of the 
New York financial district. They did listen to him as the 
spokesman of American business, irrespective of size or loca- 
tion, and of the individual and social ambitions with which 
American business had always been associated. 

Political and economic conditions towards the close of the 
nineteenth century made it natural that the pioneer economic 
system should receive at that time its final and most candid 
expression. Prosperity had to be made an issue, because 
prosperity, with all the abuses which had become associated 
with it and with all the individual and social benefits tradition- 
ally attached to it, was being assaulted. Its frank and vigorous 
defence by Mark Hanna cleared the atmosphere of a great deal 
of confusing cant, and helped public opinion to choose between 
loyalty to the old system and the risk and danger of attempting 
to substitute for it a new system. As long as Mr, Hanna lived, 
the American people, partly because of his influence, remained 
true to the old system. He carried with him the small traders 
and proprietors. After his death this class of small traders 
and proprietors, largely because of Mr. Roosevelt's influence, 
switched to reform, and they have remained ever since on that 
same track. Whatever the outcome of the attempt now being 
made to devise and establish a new system, which will have 
the advantages, without the disadvantages, of the old, the 
traditional system has ceased, at least for the time being, to 
be one on which the American people can unite for the promo- 
tion of their joint economic interests. Mark Hanna's public 
career coincided with the culmination of an epoch, and he him- 
self was unquestionably the hero of this culminating moment 
of a century of American development. 

The assertion that Mr. Hanna constituted the most complete 



474 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

embodiment of the pioneer spirit and method may now wear 
a more plausible aspect. He flourished at a time when a tradi- 
tional system, which was losing its vitality but retained much 
of its authority, was under pressure. The peculiar mixture of 
transparency, candor and sincerity in his nature had enabled 
him to incorporate the system without distortion into his own 
life. Under the pressure of the attack and in the ardor of his 
defence, the meaning of the system, its merits and defects, were 
fully and clearly revealed. For the benefit of the cause, he 
turned himself and his own people inside out, and the exposure 
threw a great deal of light on the whole process, which was just 
then reaching its culminating stage. Many earlier aspects of 
American pioneerage can be better understood when consid- 
ered in the light of Mr. Hanna's doctrines, methods and achieve- 
ments, while Mr. Hanna himself, and what he achieved, remain 
wholly inexplicable when detached from their sources and sur- 
roundings. He added nothing to the traditional system, ex- 
cept some improvements in organization, and he took nothing 
away from it. He merely reflected it, and there is much to 
learn from the reflection. 

Mark Hanna's political method and doctrine were no less 
characteristic of pioneer politics than his business doctrine and 
methods were characteristic of pioneer economics. The pio- 
neer Democrats had organized party government in order to 
supply an irresponsible official political system with some 
machinery of responsible direction. The parties became the 
engines of government and received recognition at the hands 
of the state to an extent unprecedented in previous political 
history. The men of Mr. Hanna's generation knew only one 
kind of responsibility for political action. Party organizations 
dictated candidates and platforms, and were supposed to guar- 
antee the acceptability of its nominees and the realization of its 
policies. The better party leaders, such as Mr. Hanna, took 
this responsibility very seriously. Under Mr. McKinley's 
leadership and his, the Republican party was more than usually 
successful in redeeming its promises ; and its success was due 
to their ability in drawing and keeping the party together. 
They assumed power at a moment when the Republicans, like 
the Democrats, had been very much divided by the intrusion 



CONCLUSION 475 

of sectional economic issues. They gradually converted it into 
probably the most efficient partisan machine for the transac- 
tion of political business that had been built up in this country. 

The cause of partisan harmony and efficiency, like the cause 
of prosperity, demanded many sacrifices. Mr. Hanna himself 
was willing to make the needed sacrifices, and he required them 
of his partisan associates. He labored unceasingly in the at- 
tempt to persuade his fellow-Republicans to abandon local in- 
terests, and personal feelings and ideas for the benefit of a united 
and harmonious policy. He often required sacrifices which 
conscientious men could not make. Under his leadership good 
Republicans were asked to abandon protests against the cor- 
ruption and tyranny of the machine in the interest of Republi- 
can success. But in order to understand this attitude, we must 
remember that from his point of view, the Republican party 
was the Government. Revolts against the partisan organiza- 
tion seemed to him the result merely of factious motives. They 
were no more worthy of respect than were the perverse class, ;^ 
sectional and personal quarrels which have always constituted 
the gravest obstacle to the realization of a really national policy. 
They indicated a lack of public spirit. 

Here again Mark Hanna was faithfully representing an his- 
torical tradition. The party system, corrupt and tyrannical 
as it had become in many of its local manifestations, had been 
forged to meet a real need. It had constituted the most power- 
ful of agencies for the nationalizing of public opinion in a country 
which was peculiarly liable to be distracted by local and class 
interests, and it had introduced some responsibility into an 
irresponsible official " machine." In Mark Hanna's time it con- 
tained and concealed many abuses ; but it had not for that 
reason become any less necessary. Reforming legislation 
recognizes this necessity by incorporating the party systems 
in the organization of the state, and all effective reformers have 
been obliged, in order to accomplish their purposes, to become 
local or national partisan managers and leaders. If Mark 
Hanna acquiesced in and protected much that was evil in "ma- 
chine" politics, he also brought out and developed the real 
responsibilities and capabilities of the system. Under his 
leadership the Republican party was an effective engine of 



476 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

government, conscious of its duties, responsive to public opinion 
and efficient in the exercise of its powers. 

A careful analyst of American political institutions has said 
(Henry Jones Ford, "Rise and Growth of American Politics," p. 
310) : " Nowhere else in the world at any period has party organi- 
zation had to cope with such enormous tasks as in this country, 
and its efficiency in dealing with them is the true glory of our 
political system. . . . The conclusion may be distasteful, since 
it is the habit of the times to pursue public men with calumny 
and detraction ; but it follows that when history comes to reckon 
the achievements of our age, great party managers will receive 
an appreciation very different from what is now accorded them." 
If there is any truth in this prediction, Mr. Hanna will be better 
entitled to a revised judgment in his favor than any of the po- 
litical leaders of his own day. He was the greatest and most 
successful of American party managers because he brought 
to the task of party management a peculiar combination of 
loyalty and adaptability. The power of a party leader is en- 
tirely a matter of personal authority. It is based on his ability 
to read correctly various phases of public and private opinion; 
to be always on the alert and ready for any emergency; and 
finally to understand other men, to convince them and obtain 
their confidence. His leadership has no definite term and no 
official sanction. It must be earned every day or it vanishes. 

Mark Hanna's personal authority was the direct result, not 
merely of his competence, not merely of his reliability, but 
above all of his adaptability. He introduced the phrase "stand- 
pat" into American politics, and " stand-pattism " is usually 
considered equivalent to a blind and rigid conservatism. Re- 
formers like to talk about a "stand-pat intellect," meaning 
thereby a mind inaccessible to the impact of fresh experiences 
and ideas. That is precisely the kind of mind which Mark 
Hanna did not possess. He was, of course, deeply attached 
to certain traditional ideas, but his advocacy of a traditional 
system should not obscure the essentially progressive nature 
and meaning of his personal life. His salient quality as a busi- 
ness man had been his flexibility, his enterprise, his power of 
being every kind of a man demanded by success in his business. 
His salient quality as a political leader remained his flexibility, — 



CONCLUSION 477 

his power of being every kind of a man demanded by success 
in politics. Few have been the leaders who escaped so com- 
pletely from the limitations of their own past. His career was 
a series of surprises and accumulated achievements, because 
he proved adequate to one opportunity and responsibility after 
another. In the sphere of his own proper personal work his 
disposition was essentially adventurous. He was always under- 
taking new enterprises and assuming new duties. The limita- 
tions of his ideas were the result, not of the rigidity of his mind, 
but of the limitations of his experience. That experience was 
exclusively practical and was restricted by the desire for imme- 
diate results. But within the limits of a purely practical point 
of view he was the most flexible of men; and his flexibility 
was the personal reflection of that social fluidity so characteristic 
of pioneer Americanism. 

The conclusion is that Mr. Hanna's personality and career 
had an essentially social value, which the opponents of his po- 
litical and economic opinions should be the last to ignore. He 
gave a highly individual expression both to the practical aspect 
of pioneer Americanism and to its really underlying tendency. 
The aggressive and sometimes unscrupulous individualism of 
the pioneer was redeemed by the conviction that in doing well for 
himself he was also doing well for society. The pioneer honestly 
identified and confused individual and social interests, and he 
was honestly concerned as much for the one as for the other. 
The society in which he was interested was not an abstract, 
remote entity. It was a living group of men and women, whom 
one liked or disliked, helped or hindered, and who aroused in 
one another an essentially neighborly interest. His hopes and 
aspirations of a better social state was an extension of the actual 
good-will which he felt towards his associates individually and 
as a body. 

In this region, also, Mark Hanna helps us to understand the 
pioneer American, and the pioneer helps us to understand Mark 
Hanna. Personal ties and associations composed the sub- 
stance of his life. During each successive phase of his career 
he made a few enemies and many friends. He made enemies 
because he had to fight his way to his goal. He made friends 
because he could make his own the interests of other men. He 



478 MARCUS ALONZO HANNA, HIS LIFE AND WORK 

was building up a better society in his own vicinity by treating 
his associates as he would like to be treated by them. Accord- 
ing to his owTi lights, he always played fair — not merely tov/ards 
his friends, not merely towards his business associates and em- 
ployees, not merely towards his political associates, but towards 
his personal constituents and towards public opinion. This 
spirit of fair play is characteristic of pioneer Americanism and 
constitutes its best legacy to a future American society. But 
characteristic as it was, it received only occasional expression 
in the lives of the pioneers. While their good-fellowship and 
good-will are indisputable, their actual expression of the 
Golden Rule was not zealous or persistent. They were so eager 
to make their private fortunes that they were inclined to take 
the fortune of society for granted. They could not rise to the 
level of personal disinterestedness which the spirit of their 
social edifice demanded. Mark Hanna's distinction is that he 
did rise to the necessary level of personal disinterestedness. 
He was throughout all his business and political relations what 
the average good American is only in his better moments. His 
ability to give an exceptionally high expression to a spirit 
which Americans traditionally revere constitutes the secret 
of his extraordinary success. It was by virtue of this that his 
personality inspired confidence as soon as it became known. 
He awakened echoes among his followers, not merely of their 
traditional interest in economic self-betterment, but of their 
traditional spirit of social fair play. 

The economic and political system advocated by Mr. Hanna 
may not make for social fair play ; but any one who rejects the 
system should be the more willing to recognize the good faith 
of the man. His personal behavior towards other men was 
directed towards the realization of those social values, the pro- 
motion of which is declared to be the object of a better system. 
If he was lacking, as his critics have declared, in idealism, the 
deficiency was at least partly due to the very reality of a cer- 
tain ideal element in his owti life. An impulse toward a better 
quality of human association was instinctive with him. When, 
if ever, Mark Hanna's way of behavior towards his fellows 
becomes common instead of rare, we shall not need so much 
reform or so many reformers. That so typical an American 



CONCLUSION 479 

should have reaHzed in his own hfe such an edifying social 
standard encourages the beUef J that reformers who aspire to 
create a better society are fighting on behalf of an essential 
American national instinct. 

In any event, the value inherent in Mark Hanna's example 
and life are durable — although they are not likely to be prized 
at their actual worth until greater harmony is restored between 
national traditions and individual ideals. Since Mr. Hanna's 
death, the trend of American politics has been diverging, not 
merely from his economic and political system, but from his 
peculiar emphasis upon the personal aspect of political rela- 
tions. Politicians are coming to group themselves around prin- 
ciples and to behave as if devotion to principle was a sufficient 
excuse for a shabby treatment of political friends and for fla- 
grant injustice to political opponents. No doubt some such 
tendency is natural during a period of changing conditions and 
fermenting ideas — in which the call of new convictions per- 
suades men to break long-established ties and to repudiate 
time-honored traditions. But reformers should not accept 
the change too complacently. Human beings are more real 
than ideas or principles. Principles divide as well as unite. 
They inspire doubt as well as faith. If they are destined to 
conquer, they must have their militant and aggressive phase, 
yet while they are militant, they are in part untrustworthy. 
They do not become essentially trustworthy, until they have 
conquered and are embodied in men to whom candor, fair- 
play and loyalty in their personal relationships are of as much 
importance as devotion to principle. They do not become es- 
sentially trustworthy, that is, until they have become human- 
ized. Once they have become humanized, their interpreters 
will place a fairer estimate upon the representatives of an earlier 
system, like Mark Hanna, whose life realized so much that was 
characteristic and good in the tradition of his own day and 
generation. 



INDEX 



Abolitionism, sympathies of Hanna 

family with, 12. 
Actor acquaintances and friends of Mr. 

Hanna, 75. 
Adams, Charles Francis, praises Mr. 

Hanna's services as director of Union 

Pacific R. R., 131 n. 
Aix-les-Bains, Mr. Hanna takes the 

cure at, 449. 
Akron meeting (1903), speech of Mr. 

Hanna at, 417. 
Aldrich, Senator Nelson, 429, 459. 
Alger, Russell A., 130-131, 180, 194. 
Allison, Senator, 179, 180, 191, 459; 

President McKinley's choice for 

Vice-President in 1900, 308. 
Anderson, A. T., candidate for Cleve- 
land postmastership, 154. 
Anderson, David, school-teacher in 

New Lisbon, 20-22. 
Andrews, Sherlock J., 38, 91. 
Andrews, W. W., 38. 
Anthracite coal strike, of 1900, 389; 

of 1902, 393-400. 
Aristotle, "Politics" of, quoted on 

intemperate conduct of demagogues 

and resulting dangers, 225. 
Arlington Hotel, Washington, the 

Hannas' home at, 458-459. 
Armor-plate question, the, 285-288. 
Army service of Mr. Hanna, 44-46. 
Ashtabula, Ohio, ore-handling business 

of Rhodes & Co. at, 60-61 ; attacks 

on Mr. Hanna based on lease of 

docks at, 69. 
Assessment of campaign contributions, 

system of, organized by Mr. Hanna, 

219-220, 325-326. 

Bacon, Henry, designer of Mr. Hanna's 

sepulchre, 456. 
Baird, S. H., 43. 

Baldwin, Judge George E., quoted, 94. 
Baldwin, Mrs. S. Prentiss, 34. 
Bank (Union National) in Cleveland 

organized by Mr. Hanna, 70-72. 
Banks, assessment of, by Mr. Hanna 

for campaign funds (1896), 220. 



Barrett, Lawrence, friendship between 
Mr. Hanna and, 75. 

Bartlett, A. C, 389. 

Bayne, William M., 127, 128, 154. 

Beveridge, Senator, 287, 429, 431, 457. 

Blaine, James G., defeats Sherman for 
nomination for the Presidency, 122- 
124 ; dark horse at Convention of 
1888, 135; mentioned, 151. 

Bliss, Cornelius N., Treasurer of 
Republican National Committee in 
campaign of 1896, 213 ; refuses to 
run for Vice-President in 1900, 308- 
309 ; quoted on Mr. Hanna's view 
of the Presidential nomination for 
1904, 438-439. 

Bone, J. H. A., 69. 

Bosses, early opposition of Mr. Hanna 
to and subsequent cooperation with, 
114-115; contest waged with, by 
McKinley and Hanna, in 1895-96, 
177-180 ; while making use of, Mr. 
Hanna never joined the ranks of, 188- 
189 ; victory in his first Senatorial 
election due to Mr. Hanna's differing 
from the, 265. 

Bourne, E. H., 71 ; reminiscence of Mr. 
Hanna by, 98. 

Bradbury, "Billy," New Lisbon inn- 
keeper, 34-35. 

Brainard, O. D., quoted, 86. 

Branley, Assemblyman, 253. 

Brewer, Dr. George E., 450, 453, 454. 

Bribery, charge of, in connection with 
Mr. Hanna's Senatorial campaign, 
259-264. 

Brown, Bennett, 93. 

Brush, Charles, 170. 

Bryan, William J., McKinley con- 
trasted with, as a speaker, 167 ; nom- 
ination of, in 1896, 204, 209 ; an 
earlier election date would have 
meant the success of, 209 ; class and 
sectional feelings aroused by, in 
campaign of 1896, 210-211; reasons 
for especial appeal of, to public 
opinion, 210-211 ; personal stumping 
tour by, 214-215; defeat of, by 



2l 



481 



482 



INDEX 



McKinley by a large majority, 216- 
217; speaka in Ohio against Mr. 
Hanna in the Senatorial campaign, 
247, 249 ; the Democratic candi- 
date in 1900, 304; Mr. Hanna's 
speech against, at Lincoln, Nebraska, 
338-339 ; decisive defeat of, by Mc- 
Kinley (1900), 341. 

Bufifalo, assassination of President 
McKinley at, 358-360. 

Bunau-Varilla, Philippe, French Pan- 
ama Canal Co.'s engineer, 381. 

Burke, Vernon H., 253, 254, 260, 288- 
289. 

Burton, Theodore E., "Life of Sher- 
man" by, quoted, 136, 233; con- 
troversy between Mr. Hanna and, 
over Cleveland postmastership, 154 ; 
works in Mr. Hanna's interests in 
Senatorial campaign, 254; advises 
President Roosevelt on Ohio ap- 
pointments, 438. 

Bushnell, Governor Asa, 176 ; reluc- 
tant appointment by, of Mr. Hanna 
to Sherman's former seat in Senate, 
239-241 ; a leader in conspiracy 
against Mr. Hanna for Senator, 251 ; 
injures his own political career in 
attacking Mr. Hanna, 256 ; death 
of, 452. 

Butterworth, Benjamin, 132, 138, 151, 
462 ; warm friendship of, for Mr. 
Hanna, and letters by, 154-156. 

Campaign contributions, systematizing 
of, by Mr. Hanna, 219-223, 324-326. 

Campaign literature, volume of, in 
McKinley's first election (1896), 
217-218. 

Campbell, James E., and patent ballot- 
box episode, 153. 

Campbell, Thomas C, 259, 262. 

Canals, development of, in Ohio, for 
transportation purposes, 28-29. 

Capital and Labor problem, Mr. 
Hanna's interest in, 386-410. 

Card, Jonathan F., 50. 

Card-playing, recreation found in, by 
Mr. Hanna, 459. 

Carnegie, Andrew, 170. 

Carter, Dr. E. P., 454. 

Carter, Thomas H., 167, 288, 293. 

Cartoons of Mr. Hanna, 224, 339, 340, 
365, 370. 

Catholics, political support of, given to 
Mr. Hanna, 434. 

Chadwick, Admiral F. E., quoted, 237. 

Chandler, Frank M., letter of Mr. 



Hanna to, 299 ; advice given to, by 
Mr. Hanna, on selection of assist- 
ants, 300. 

Chandler, Senator, 287. 

Chapin, George W., 46, 51. 

Charities, extent of Mr. Hanna's, 461- 
463. 

Chautauqua speeches on the labor 
question by Mr. Hanna, 396-397, 
404. 

Chinese exclusion legislation, 373, 374. 

Chisholm, Henry, 66. 

Chisholm, William, 170. 

Church, Mr. Hanna's attitude toward 
the, 461. 

City of Superior steamboat, 40. 

Civic Federation. See National Civic 
Federation. 

Civil Service law, indifference shown by 
Mr. Hanna to, 299. 

Clark, M. B., 43. 

Clarke, John H., Democratic nominee 
for Senator in 1903, 430. 

Clarkson, Ohio, founding of, 3. 

Clarkson, James S., 178, 180. 

Class feeling aroused by Democrats in 
election of 1896, 210-211. 

Clay, Senator, tribute paid by, to 
Mr. Hanna's power, 343. 

Clayton, Powell, 123, 214. 

Cleveland, Ohio, removal of Leonard 
and Robert Hanna to, 32 ; early 
years of the Hanna family in, 36-46 ; 
advantages of situation of, 40, 54-56. 

Cleveland, Grover, anti-protectionist 
campaign of (1888), 143 ff. ; effect on 
McKinley's prospects of defeat of 
Harrison by, 167 ; business depres- 
sion and panic during administration 
of, 168-169 ; weakening of adminis- 
trations of, by mistakes in selections 
for office, 297. 

Cleveland City Ry. Co., Mr. Hanna 
and the, 77-83. 

Cleveland Iron Mining Company, 59. 

Cleveland Rolling Mills Company, 59. 

Cleveland Transportation Company, 
59, 61. 

Coal miners, labor troubles with, and 
part taken by Mr. Hanna in, 89-95, 
389, 393-400. 

Coal mining business of M5. Hanna's 
firm, 56-57, 62. 

Columbiana County, Ohio, 1, 8. 

Commerce and Labor, establishment of 
Department of, 373, 374. 

Conciliation and Arbitration, Depart- 
ment of, of Civic Federation, 389 ; 



INDEX 



483 



D. R. Hanna chosen a member of, 
389-390; interest of M. A. Hanna 
aroused in, 390-391 ; work of, in 
connection with anthracite coal 
strike of 1902, 393-400. 

Conger, A. L., 176. 

Conkling, Roscoe, 116, 117. 

Connell, Charles C, historian of New 
Lisbon, 22. 

Converse ancestry of M. A. Hanna, 5-7. 

Converse, George O., 3 n. 

Converse, Hattie, school-teacher, 17, 
19-20. 

Converse, Helen, 34. 

Converse, Samantha (Mrs. Leonard 
Hanna), 5-7, 17. 

Corbett, Henry W., 277. 

Corporate interests, development of, 
with Repubhcan supremacy, 296- 
297 ; position of, as an issue, in 
McKinley campaign of 1900, 305- 
306, 323-327. 

Corruption, poHtical, Mr. Hanna's 
attitude toward, 80-83 ; emphasis 
laid on objections to use of campaign 
funds for, by Mr. Hanna, 184-185. 

Cortelyou, George B., 359, 360; con- 
siders that McKinley was an abler 
politician than Mr. Hanna, 365 ; 
testifies to Mr. Hanna's influence 
with President Roosevelt, 372 ; 
good offices of, in preserving friendly 
relations between Hanna and Roose- 
velt, 437. 

Cowles, Edwin, editor of Cleveland 
Leader, 66, 67, 68, 118, 119; defeats 
Mr. Hanna in election as delegate 
to National Convention of 1884, 120- 
121. 

Cox, George B., 129, 176, 252 ; letters 
from Mr. Hanna to, 294-295, 426. 

Cox, Peter, quoted, 86-87. 

Crawford County system of direct 
primaries, 355-356. 

Cromwell, William Nelson, 378. 

Cuban reciprocity question, 375. 

Cullom, Senator, 179, 183. 

Currency issue, rise of the, 168-169 ; 
in Republican platform in 1896, 192- 
205 ; Democrats take a positive 
attitude toward, in Convention of 
1896, 204-205 ; settlement of, by the 
56th Congress, 282. 

Daugherty, H. M., 292, 295. 

Davenport, Homer, distorted impres- 
sions of Mr. Hanna promulgated 
by cartoons by, 224, 339, 340, 370. 



Davis, Senator, 179. 

Dawes, Charles G., 183, 214 ; work of, 
in persuading Mr. Hanna to ac- 
quiesce in nomination of Roosevelt 
for Vice-President, 316. 

Debating club, New Lisbon, 23-24. 

Dempsey, James H., quoted, 104-105 ; 
cited on Mr. Hanna's ambition to 
become Senator, 231-232; on Mr. 
Hanna as a public speaker, 244 ; 
mentioned, 463. 

Depew, Chauncey, 283. 

Dewstoe, Charles C, 300. 

Dick, Charles, 166-167, 175, 177, 181 ; 
Secretary of Republican National 
Committee in 1896, 214 ; mentioned 
in connection with bribery charges 
brought against Mr. Hanna, 260, 
289 n. 

Dingley Law, the, 249 ; passage of, 
275 ; Mr. Hanna's contributions to 
making of the, 276. 

Dixon family, the, 3. 

DoUiver, Jonathan, mentioned for 
Vice-Presidency in 1900, 309, 311. 

DoUiver, Victor, companion of Mr. 
Hanna's on speaking tour of North- 
west (1900), 334-335. 

Donaldson, J. C, state committeeman, 
161 ; political aide of Senator Sher- 
man, 234 ; correspondence of, quoted, 
235-236. 

Dover, Elmer, 245, 322, 334, 346, 360, 
423, 424, 441, 453; testimony of, 
to even disposition of Mr. Hanna, 
and remarks on value of Mr. Dover's 
services, 461. 

Droste, Charles F., 253, 254, 256, 258. 

Durbin, Winfield T., work of, in 
campaign of 1896, 214. 

Easley, Ralph M., secretary of National 
Civic Federation, 388, 389, 392, 393 ; 
quoted on Mr. Hanna's work to 
settle anthracite coal strike, 395. 

Eels, Dan P., 66. 

Ellsler, John, 72-73. 

Ell wood, William, 93. 

Employees, Mr. Hanna's relations with 
his, 86-89, 95, 338, 339, 387-388. 

Engineer, incident of the, and Mr. 
Hanna, in Nebraska tour, 337. 

Eshelby, Edward O., 253. 

Europe, trips to, by Mr. Hanna, 281, 449. 

Everett, Sylvester T., 66, 71, 72, 121. 

Fairbanks, Charles M., 190 ; men- 
tioned for Vice-Presidency in 1900, 309. 



484 



INDEX 



Filley, Chauncey I., 178. 
Flagler, H. M., 66. 
Fogg, William P., 66. 
Foraker, James B., at Convention of 
1884, 122-124 ; close relations re- 
sulting from Convention of 1884 
between Mr. Hanna and, 124-126; 
election as Governor of Ohio, 125- 
126; break with Mr. Hanna, and 
causes, 128-137; effect on Ohio 
politics of enmity between Mr. 
Hanna and, 138-139; growing ri- 
valry of McKinley and, 141-142 ; 
defeat of, for Governor in 1889, 152- 
153 ; the patent ballot-box incident, 
153; defeat of, for Senator by 
Sherman in 1891, 158-162; obtains 
victory over Mr. Hanna and 
Governor McKinley in 1895, 176- 
177 ; supports McKinley's candi- 
dacy for the nomination for Presi- 
dent in 1896, 182; places Mc- 
Kinley's name before Convention of 
1896, 191 ; honor of inserting gold 
clause in Republican platform of 
1896 claimed by, 193; on Coin- 
mittee on Resolutions at St. Louis, 
195-196; pamphlet on "The Gold 
Plank" by, cited, 202-203; ques- 
tionable attitude of, in Mr. Hanna's 
first Senatorial campaign, 254 ; as 
a debater in the Senate, 282 ; takes 
part in state election of 1901, 357 ; 
clever work of, in forcing Mr. Hanna 
into a corner on Roosevelt issue 
(1903), 423-425; tries to embroil 
relations between Roosevelt and 
Hanna in 1903, 436; on death of 
Mr. Hanna, pronounces the most 
discriminating appreciation of his 
career and personality, 457-458. 

Ford, George H., quoted, 38. 

Ford, Henry Jones, work by, quoted, 476. 

Foster, Charles, 118, 132, 138, 165; 
death of, 452. 

Frazee, John N., description of Lieu- 
tenant Hanna by, 46. 

Frick. H. C, 170. 

Frye, Senator, on Mr. Hanna as a 
stump speaker, 248; with Mr. 
Hanna during speaking tour in 
Northwest (1900), 334-335; con- 
verted to the Panama route for 
Isthmian canal by Mr. Hanna's 
speech in Senate, 384. 

Gage, Lyman G., 388. 
Gailinger, Senator, 284. 



Gardner, George W., 118, 121, 126. 
Garfield, James A., campaign of 1880, 
110, 116-117; succeeded by Mc- 
Kinley on Ways and Means Com- 
mittee, 142 ; helped financially by 
National Committee, 160. 

Garfield, James R., mentioned in 
connection with Mr. Hanna's first 
Senatorial campaign and the charges 
of attempted bribery, 253, 258, 260, 
290; testifies to Mr. Hanna's 
freedom from corrupt methods, 264; 
helps to maintain friendly relations 
between Hanna and Roosevelt, 
437-438. 

Garretson, Hiram, 32, 36, 43. 

Gary, James A., appointed Postmaster- 
General by McKinley, 230. 

Gathmann Torpedo, the 280-281. 

Gerrard, Jephtha A., 258-259. 

Gessner, Francis B., newspaper corre- 
spondent, 267. 

Gleason, Major, description of Lieuten- 
ant Hanna by, 46. 

Globe Ship Building Company, 61. 

Goebel, Judge, 253. 

Gold plank in St. Louis platform 
(1896), 192-199. 

Gold standard, establishment of, by 
the 56th Congress, 282. 

Gompers, Samuel, 389, 391, 392. 

Gowdy, John K., 181. 

Grant, President, and James A. Gar- 
field, 116-117. 

Grasselli, C. A., 456. 

Gridiron Club dinner, and tribute 
paid to Mr. Hanna at, 369-371. 

Griffith, John E., 257, 258. 

Griscom, Clement, 429. 

Grosvenor, Charles H., 254 ; interview 
with, on Roosevelt's chances in 
1904, 423. 

Hahn, WUliam M., 160, 214. 

Hale, Rev. Edward Everett, memorial 
address on Mr. Hanna delivered by, 
456. 

Hale, Senator, 284, 429. 

Hanna, Benjamin, grandfather of 
M. A. Hanna, 2-5, 8-11, 15, 16; the 
eleven children of, 4-5 ; financial 
ruin and death of, 31-32. 

Hanna, Daniel Rhodes, son of M. A. 
Hanna, 49, 429, 451 ; a member of 
M. A. Hanna & Co., 60; chosen a 
member of Conciliation and Arbi- 
tration Committee of Civic Federa- 
tion, 389-390. 



INDEX 



485 



Hanna, Elizabeth, ancestor of M. A. 
Hanna, 2. 

Hanna, H. Melville, younger brother 
of M. A. Hanua, 13, 14, 15, 34, 43 ; 
service in navy during Civil War, 44 ; 
buys M. A. Hanna's refinery and sells 
out to Standard Oil Company, 51 ; 
introduction of steel vessels on the 
Great Lakes by, 61 ; quoted, 100 ; 
on McKinley's tact and attractive 
personality, 175-176; with M. A. 
Hanna in his last illness, 454. 

Hanna, James B., nephew of M. A. 
Hanna, 88. 

Hanna, Joshua, uncle of M. A. Hanna, 
5, 10-11, 12, 32. 

Hanna, Kersey, uncle of M. A. Hanna, 
3 n., 4, 10, 14, 18. 

Hanna, L. G., manager of Cleveland 
Opera House, 73. 

Hanna, Leonard, father of M. A. 
Hanna, 5-6, 11, 17, 18; marriage 
to Samantha Converse, 6 ; takes 
prominent part in temperance and 
political movements in Ohio, 13-15 ; 
removal from New Lisbon to Cleve- 
land, 32 ; illness and death of, 42. 

Hanna, Leonard C, brother of M. A. 
Hanna, 41 ; a member of Rhodes & 
Co., 60 n. ; quoted, 85, 101, 102; 
becomes head of M. A. Hanna & Co. 
on withdrawal of M. A. Hanna, 173- 
174. 

Hanna, Levi, uncle of M. A. Hanna, 
3 n., 11. 

Hanna, Marcus Alonzo, birth of (Sept. 
24, 1837), 1, 7; ancestry, 2-7; 
boyhood home and school life, 17 ff. ; 
religious trend of father and mother, 
18; personal appearance, 19; activ- 
ities in debating club and in mimic 
warfare, 23-27 ; as a leader among 
boys, 27, 38-39; removal with 
parents to Cleveland, 32 ; engage- 
ment to Mary Ann McLain, 32-33 ; 
■ schooldays in Cleveland and at 
"Western Reserve College, 36-39; 
attitude toward book education and 
education of real life, 39 ; entrance 
into business of Hanna, Garretson 
& Co. (1857), 39-41; roustabout, 
purser, and commercial traveller, 
40-41 ; active social life led by, 41- 
42 ; effect on, of death of father 
in 1862, 42-43 ; a member of firm of 
Robert Hanna & Co., 43-44 ; in the 
Civil War, 44-46 ; descriptions of, 
as a soldier, 46 ; love affair with and 



marriage to Miss C. Augusta 
Rhodes, 47—48; vicissitudes of early 
married life, 48-50 ; becomes a 
member of firm of Rhodes & Co., 50 ; 
refinery previously owned by, sold 
to Standard Oil Company, 51 ; 
speculation on effects on career of, 
had he joined the Rockefellers, 51-52 ; 
energies put into Rhodes & Co. make 
him its leading member, 52-53 ; 
success of Rhodes & Co. and M. A 
Hanna & Co. due to nature of 
management initiated by, 63-64 ; 
business ventures outside of his 
special line, 65 ff. ; experiences as 
proprietor of the Cleveland Herald, 
66-70 ; false impression of person- 
ality of, resulting from contest 
with the Leader, 68 ; the answer 
to accusation of being a boss, 70 ; 
organization of Union National 
Bank by, 70-72 ; Cleveland Opera 
House purchased and managed 
under direction of, 72-75 ; acquaint- 
ance among actors, 75 ; street 
railway affiliations of, 76-83 ; atti- 
tude toward corruption in Cleve- 
land politics, 80-83 ; relation be- 
tween his employees and, 84 ff. ; 
street railway men and, 86-89 ; ex- 
periences with labor difficulties, 89- 
95 ; generally broad and humane 
treatment of employees by, 95 ; 
characteristics of, in business, 96 ff. ; 
his initiative, 96-97 ; capacity for 
hard work, 97-98 ; success as a 
salesman, 98 ; aptitude for me- 
chanics, 98-99 ; control of business 
campaigns by, 99-101 ; mixture of 
balance and prudence in business 
policy of, 101-103; success as ' an 
organizer, 103 ; absolute integrity 
the keystone of his business struc- 
ture, 103-104 ; a shrewd judge of 
people, 105-106 ; manner in dealing 
with business associates, 106-107 ; 
can be summed up as a business 
man who carried over into the period 
of industrial expansion the best 
characteristics of the pioneer, 107- 
108, 465 ff. ; mistake of viewing 
him as essentially a money-maker, 
108-109 ; beginnings as a politician, 
110; interest in politics antedated 
street railway connection, 112-113; 
partriotic motives at the base of his 
interest in political matters, 113- 
114; early opposition to and subse- 



486 



INDEX 



quent cooperation with the bosses, 
114-115; essential features of creed 
of, regarding politics, 115; the 
Garfield campaign in 1880, 116-117 ; 
broadening of political interests after 
Garfield's election, 117-118; mem- 
ber of state Republican committee, 
118; the experimental period of his 
political career, 118-119; plunge 
into national politics with election 
as delegate to National Convention 
of 1884, 120 ff. ; close relations 
between James B. Foraker and, 124- 
126 ; activities in electing Foraker 
Governor and in Cleveland munici- 
pal politics, 126-127 ; backed by- 
important business men rather than 
professional politicians, 127 ; rup- 
ture between Foraker and, and 
causes, 128-137 ; constant support 
of John Sherman for the Presidency, 
129-137 ; appointed director of 
Union Pacific R. R., 131 ; at the 
National Convention of 1888, 133- 
136 ; permanent hostility of Foraker 
and, and effect on Mr. Hanna's 
career and on Ohio politics, 138-139 ; 
McKinley definitely replaces Sher- 
man in mind of, as a Presidential 
possibility, 140-141 ; increased in- 
terest in national politics due to the 
tariff issue, 143 ; as a campaign 
fund contributor and successful 
solicitor of campaign contributions, 
145-147 ; his assistance of Mc- 
Kinley and Kimberly in money ways, 
146-147 ; visit to Washington in 
1889 to help McKinley's fight for 
Speakership, 150 ; open hostility 
to Foraker in latter's candidacy for 
Governorship in 1889, 152-153; 
open dislike and lack of recognition 
of, by President Harrison, 153-154 ; 
controversy with Congressman 
Burton over the Cleveland post- 
mastership 154 ; growing friend- 
ship with Sherman, McKinley, and 
Butterworta, 154 ; letters of Butter- 
worth to, 154-156 ; McKinley's 
cautious letters to, 156-158; success- 
ful efforts by, to elect McKinley as 
Governor and Sherman as Senator 
(1891), 158-162; grateful letter 
from Sherman to, but total neglect 
of mention of in Sherman's "Rem- 
iniscences," 162-163 ; work for 
McKinley at Minneapolis in 1891, 
165-166 ; offered Treasurership of 



National Committee by Benjamin 
Harrison but declines in order to 
leave hands free to work for Mc- 
Kinley (1891), 165; great help 
given to McKinley during latter's 
financial ruin, 170 ; importance of 
McKinley's brilliant reelection in 
1893 appreciated by and made full 
use of, 171 ; decision of, to with- 
draw from direction of M. A. Hanna 
& Co. to give time to politics, and 
reasons for decision, 172-174 ; rents 
house in Georgia to help McKinley's 
cause in the South, 175-176 ; 
management of McKinley's cam- 
paign for the nomination in 1896, 
175 ff. ; cost of McKinley's cam- 
paign for nomination in 1896 
paid by, 183-184; strict objections 
of, to illegitimate use of money by 
his lieutenants, 184-185 ; reasons 
traced for success of his ambition 
for McKinley, 188-189 ; attitude of, 
favorable to a gold standard, 194 ; 
letter to A. K. McClure concerning 
St. Louis Convention, 198-199; 
recognition of services of, and speech 
by, on nomination of McKinley, 
205 ; made Chairman of National 
Committee, 206 ; ovation to and 
speeches by, on return to Cleveland, 
207-208 ; masterly generalship dis- 
played by, in managing campaign of 
1896, 209-227; amount of money 
raised by, for election expenses, 
218-221 ; defence of his methods of 
meeting campaign expenses, 221- 
223 ; made the victim of malignant 
personal attacks, 223-225 ; popular 
approval of and interest in, after 
McKinley's triumph, 228 ; declines 
Cabinet position (Postmaster-Gen- 
eralship) offered by McKinley, 
229-230; reasons, 230-231; ambi- 
tion to become Senator, 231-232 ; his- 
tory of appointment of, to Sherman's 
seat in Senate, 232-241 ; reason for 
desirability of seeking election to 
Senate, to preserve personal prestige, 
242 ; story of confirmation of his 
title to Senatorship by the people 
and Legislature, 242-271; first 
stump speaking by, 243-247 ; bri- 
bery charge against, 259-263 ; re- 
jection of corrupt methods by, 
263-264 ; speech to supporters in the 
Legislature. 266 ; letter to David K. 
Watson concerning attack on Stand- 



INDEX 



487 



ard Oil Co. by, discussed, 266-271 ; 
first three years of, in the Senate 
viewed as a transition period, 
272 ff. ; handicapped by prominence 
as a friend of the President and as 
Chairman of the National Com- 
mittee, 273 ; work in connection 
with the Dingley Law, 275-276; 
committees on which he served, 
276 ; attitude on public questions 
as indicated by his votes, 277 ; 
attitude on the Spanish War, 278- 
279; as an Imperialist, 279-280; 
his ship-subsidy bill, 280, 344 ff. J 
interest in the Gathmann Torpedo, 
280-281 ; votes against seating M. 
S. Quay, 283; takes active part in 
armor-plate debate, 286-288; Sen- 
ator Pettigrew's attack on, and 
Mr. Hanna's defence, 288-290 ; 
part taken by, in Ohio politics in 
1898 and 1899, 291-296; skill dis- 
played by, in distribution of patron- 
age, 297-298; rules laid down by, 
on appointments, 299-301 ; prepa- 
rations of, for Convention of 1900, 
302 ff. ; the trust issue, 305-307; 
opposes Roosevelt's nomination for 
Vice-President, 310; forced to ac- 
quiesce in the nomination of Roose- 
velt for Vice-President, 315-317; 
McKinley's hesitation in selecting 
Mr. Hanna to manage campaign of 
1900, 320-321; eminent skill dis- 
played by, in conducting the cam- 
paign, on receiving appointment to 
Chairmanship of National Com- 
mittee, 321-322; irritation over 
certain attitudes taken by McKinley, 
329-330 ; his stump-speaking tour 
in the Northwest, 331-340; resent- 
ment of, over McKinley's attempted 
interference, 333-334; overwhelm- 
ing success of tour, 340 ; prestige 
of, after McKinley's reelection, 
342-344 ; ship-subsidy legislation 
urged by, 344-354; failure of, to 
control his party's politics in Cleve- 
land, 355 ; at Buffalo at time of the 
President's assassination, 358-360 ; 
exchanges pledges as to mutual 
behavior with Roosevelt, on death 
of McKinley, 360-362 ; comparisons 
and contrasts drawn between Mc- 
Kinley and, 363-368; change in 
public sentiment toward, following 
McKinley's death, 369 ; the Gridiron 
Club dinner and address, 369-371 ; 



continued influence of, at the White 
House and friendship with Roose- 
velt, 371-372 ; takes part in debates 
on Department of Commerce and 
Labor, Chinese Exclusion Act, Penn- 
sylvania R. R. station in Washing- 
ton, Cuban reciprocity, etc., 374- 
375 ; position in the government 
in 1901-1902 analogous to that of a 
German Imperial Chancellor, 375- 
376 ; great importance of work of, in 
behalf of Panama Canal, 376 ff. ; 
becomes leader in the Senate of pro- 
Panama route party, 380; exhaus- 
tive investigation by, of advantages 
and disadvantages of different canal 
routes, 381-382 ; speech of, in behalf 
of Panama route (June 5 and 6 
1902), 382-384; interest aroused in 
capital and labor problem, 386 ff. ; 
publicly identifies himself with 
work of National Civic Federation, 
391-392; chairman of Industrial 
Department, Civic Federation, 391- 
392; work of, to settle anthracite 
coal miners' strike of 1902, 393-400 ; 
settlement of various labor disputes 
by, 401-402; description of official life 
of, at Washington, 412-413; proba- 
bility of election to Presidency, in case 
McKinley had lived, 413 ; numerous 
advocates of Mr. Hanna's nomina- 
tion in 1904, 414-415, 416-417, 420; 
effect on relations with Roosevelt of 
efforts of friends in behalf of nomina- 
tion, 422-423; cornered on Roose- 
velt nomination question by the 
Foraker faction, 423-425; indorse- 
ment of, by Ohio state convention 
of 1903, 429; celebration by, of 
marriage of his daughter Ruth, 429- 
430 ; efforts put forth by, in state 
election of 1903, 430-433; reelec- 
tion by a large majority in 1903, 
433 ; letters of congratulation to, 
from widespread sources, 434 ; re- 
ncM-ed efforts by supporters to boom 
him for the Presidency, 435; sup- 
posed motives of, for not coming 
out decisively for Roosevelt's re- 
nomination, 442-444; question if 
he could have been persuaded to 
accept nomination had health per- 
mitted, 444-446; personal habits 
relative to eating, smoking, and 
exercise, 447-448; premonitions of 
physical breakdown in 1903, 449- 
450; visit to Europe, 450; last 



488 



INDEX 



public utterance, his address to the 
Legislature on being reelected to 
Senate, 451-452; depressed by 
death of Mr. Foster and ex-Governor 
Bushnell, 452; forced to take to 
his bed by attack of typhoid fever, 
453 ; last exchange of notes with 
President Roosevelt, 453-454 ; death 
of (Feb. 15, 1904), 455; memorial 
and funeral services, 455-456; 
honest, fair, and discriminating 
appreciation of career and personal- 
ity of, pronounced by Senator 
Foraker, 457-458; further descrip- 
tion of personal life and character- 
istics of, 458-464; to be regarded 
in the final summing-up as the em- 
bodiment of the pioneer spirit, 
whose conception of the business 
of the government was to further 
the interests of individuals, 465- 
471 ; analysis in this light of his 
business and political career, 471- 
477 ; his crowning distinction his 
spirit of fair play, his constancy to a 
standard which the average Ameri- 
can attains only in his better 



moments, 478; durability of the 
value inherent in his example and 
in his life, 479. 
Hanna, Robert, great-grandfather of 

M. A. Hanna, 2-3. 4. 

Hanna, Robert, uncle of M. A. Hanna, 

3 n., 5, 11 ; removal from New 

Lisbon to Cleveland, 32 ; mentioned, 

43, 50. 

Hanna, Ruth, daughter of M. A. 

Hanna, 34; wedding of , 423, 429-430. 

Hanna, Thomas, ancestor of M. A. 

Hanna, 2. 
Hanna, Thomas B., uncle of M. A. 

Hanna, 3 n., 11. 
Hanna & Co., M. A., succeeds Rhodes 

& Co., 60 n. 
Hanna-Frye Subsidy Bill, 280, 345, 

347 ; failure of, 353-354. 
Hanna, Garretson & Co., firm of, 36, 

39-40, 43. 
Harbaugh, Porter, 6. 
Harrison, Benjamin, election of, as 
President by small margin, 149- 
150 ; dislike and lack of recognition 
of Mr. Hanna by, 153-154 ; nomina- 
tion and defeat of, in 1891-92, 164- 
166 ; a possible rival of McKinley's 
in 1896, 177-178, 179, 180 ; weaken- 
ing of administration by mistakes in 
selections for office, 297. 



Hartz, Augustus F., 73-74. 

Hawley, Senator, 284. 

Hay, John, 170 ; letter by, concerning 

Mr. Hanna, 228. 
Hayes, Rutherford B., 93. 
Hayward, W. H., 45. 
Hearst, William R., malignant attacks 
on Mr. Hanna by yellow journals 
of, 224. 
Heath, Perry, 214. 
Hepburn Bill relating to proposed 

Nicaraguan Canal, 379-380. 
Herald, the Cleveland, Mr. Hanna'a 
experience as publisher of, 66-70 ; 
use of, by Mr. Hanna, in the Garfield 
campaign, 117. 
Herrick, Myron T., 132, 192, 456; 
McKinley aided by, when financially 
ruined, 170; at St. Louis Conven- 
tion, 196-198; with Mr Hanna in 
Buffalo at time of President Mc- 
Kinley's death, 360; interest of, in 
Panama Canal route, 381 ; nomina- 
tion of, for Governor in 1903, 428- 
429; greatmajority by which elected 
Governor, 433-434. 
Hill, James J., reminiscence of Mr. 
Hanna by, 105; introduces Mr. 
Hanna in Wall Street in campaign of 
1896, 219. 
Hitchcock, Henry V., 38. 
Hitchcock, John F., 38. 
Hitchcock, President of Western Re- 
serve College, 37. 
Hoar, George F., 284; letter to Mr. 

Hanna from, 431-432. 
Hobart, Garret A., 180, 191-192. 
Hollenbeck, H. H., 260. 
Hord, A. C, 120. 
Hough, A. B., 98, 207, 456, 459. 
Hoyt, James H., 170, 176. 
Hubbell, Mr. and Mrs. Henry S.; 

34. 
Hughes, Gideon, 2. 
Hunter, Frank, 88. 
Huntington, John, 112. 



Imperialism, acceptance of doctrine of, 
by McKinley and Hanna, 279-280. 

Industrial Department, National Civic 
Federation, Mr. Hanna as chairman 
of, 391 ff. ; work of, in anthracite 
coal strike and other labor disputes, 
393-402 ; ultimate non-success of, as 
an agency for settling labor troubles, 
407. 

Initiative, Mr. Hanna's salient charac- 
teristic of, 96-97. 



INDEX 



489 



Ireland, Archbishop, a friend of Mr. 

Hanna's, 434. 
Iron-handling business of Mr. Hanna's 

firm, 57-62. 

James, John, secretary of Miners' 
National Association, quoted, 94-95. 

Johnson, Tom L., and Cleveland 
street railways, 82 ; first election 
as Mayor of Cleveland, 355 ; cam- 
paign of, throughout Ohio in 1902, 
419 ; defeated in state but continues 
to hold city of Cleveland, 420 ; 
defeated by Myron T. Herrick for 
Governor in 1903, 430-434. 

Johnson, Willis Fletcher, "Four Cen- 
turies of the Panama Canal" by, 
quoted, 384. 

Jones, John P., 254. 

Journal, New York, attacks on Mr. 
Hanna by, 224. 

Kean, Senator, 429. 

Keefe, Dan J., 389, 390, 391. 

Kennedy, James H., quoted, 117. 

Kenyon College, Mr. Hanna's address 
at, 247 ; donation to, 462. 

Kimberly, David H., reminiscence by, 
1 20- 121; election to county treasurer- 
ship, 126-127 ; Mr. Hanna's finan- 
cial assistance of, 147-148. 

King, Rufus, "Ohio" by, quoted, 29. 

Kinney, Major Lewis, founder of New 
Lisbon, Ohio, 1. 

Kittridge, Senator, 384. 

Knox, Philander, 170. 

Kohlsaat, H. H., 170, 192; claims 
responsibility for inserting gold 
clause in Republican platform of 
1896, 192-193; at St. Louis Con- 
vention, 196-198. 

Kurtz, Charles L., 176-177; enforced 
retirement of, as Chairman of State 
Committee arouses his animos- 
ity against Mr. Hanna, 243 ; a 
leader in the conspiracy against 
Mr. Hanna in his first Senatorial 
election, 251-252. 

Labor problem, keen interest of Mr. 

Hanna in the, 386 ff. 
Labor unions, speeches and articles by 

Mr. Hanna on, 404-406 ; analysis 

of motives underlying Mr. Hanna's 

treatment of, 408-410. 
Lac la Belle steamboat, 49, 52. 
Landis, C. B., 332. 
Lauterbach, Edward, 203. 
Leach, Charles F., quoted, 110 ; advice 



on appointments given to, by Mr. 
Hanna, 299-300. 

Leader, the Cleveland, war waged on 
Mr. Planna and the Cleveland 
Herald by, 66-68 ; responsibility of, 
for grossly false impressions of Mr. 
Hanna's character and personality, 
68. iSee also Cowles, Edwin. 

Leland, Cyrus, Jr., work of, in cam- 
paign of 1896, 214. 

Leonard, Bishop, delivers eulogy on 
Mr. Hanna, 456. 

Leonard Hanna, steamboat, 59. 

Letter, the historic Hanna-Watson, con- 
cerning Standard Oil Co., 266-271. 

Lewis, Alfred Henry, false and libellous 
attacks on Mr. Hanna by, 224-225. 

Lodge, Henry Cabot, 190, 192. 

Long, John D., mentioned for Vice- 
Presidency in 1900, 309, 311. 

Lynchburg, Va., laid out by ancestor 
of Mr. Hanna's, 2-3. 

McClure, A. K., letter from Mr. 
Hanna to, 198-199. 

McClure's Magazine article on Mr. 
Hanna, 71-72. 

McCook, Dr. Henry G., "Threnody" 
on M. A. Hanna by, 19, 24 ; descrip- 
tion of Mark Hanna as a schoolboy, 
22-23. 

McCook, General Anson, G., descrip- 
tion of New Lisbon debating club 
by, 23-24. 

McCook, George, 26. 

McCook, John, 26. 

McCormick, Joseph M., marriage of 
Ruth Hanna to, 429-430. 

McDougal, Thomas, 170. 

McKinley, Abner, 359. 

McKinley, James, 2. 

McKinley, Mrs. William, Jr., devotion 
of her husband to, 363. 

McKinley, William, father of the Presi- 
dent, 2. 

McKinley, William, Jr., 2 ; defence of 
striking coal miners by, 93-94 ; 
possible first meeting between Mr. 
Hanna and, 94 ; at National Con- 
vention of 1884, 122-123; men- 
tioned, 132 ; voted for, at National 
Convention of 1888, 135-136 ; vital 
effect on relations between Mr. 
Hanna and, of latter's rupture with 
Foraker, 137-138 ; definite replacing 
of Sherman by, in Mr. Hanna's 
mind, as a Presidential possibility, 
140-141 ; increasing political rivalry 



490 



INDEX 



of Foraker and, 141-142 ; popularity 
of, on account of attractive personal- 
ity and high protection principles, 
142-143 ; financial assistance ren- 
dered to, by Mr. Hanna, 147 ; de- 
feat of, in fight for Speakership 
(1889) and beneficial effects of, on 
political career, 150 ; as Chairman 
of Ways and Means Committee 
becomes responsible for new tariff 
act, 150-151 ; unites with Mr. 
Hanna in opposition to Foraker for 
Governor in 1889, 152-153 ; wary 
nature of, as shown by correspon- 
dence, 156-158 ; successful cam- 
paign of, for Governorship in 1891, 
158-162; effect on Presidential 
ambitions of election to Governor- 
ship, 164 ; immediate steps taken 
for nomination in 1896 after Con- 
vention of 1891, 166-167; effect of 
Democratic victory of 1892 on 
prospects of, 167 ; contrasted as a 
public speaker with W. J. Bryan, 
167 ; effect of business depression 
under Cleveland on chances of, 
168-169 ; unexpected bankruptcy 
of, and threatened political ruin, 
169-170; ill-fortune of, works to 
his advantage in the end, 170-171 ; 
reelected Governor by brilliant 
majority in 1893 and acclaimed as 
next Republican Presidential candi- 
date, 170-171 ; effect on candidacy 
for President of passage of Wilson 
Bill and continued bad times under 
Cleveland, 172-173; history of 
campaign of 1896, 174 ff. ; the con- 
test with Piatt, Quay and other 
bosses, 177-180 ; cost of campaign 
for nomination in 1896, 184 ; free- 
dom of campaign from corruption 
and preelection promises of political 
rewards, 184-187 ; success due not 
only to pleasing personality but 
because he represented a national 
group of ideas and interests, 187 ; 
vote cast for, in National Convention 
of 1896, 191 ; the currency issue 
forced upon, in Republican plat- 
form, 192-193 ; position of, on the 
gold and silver question, 193-195 ; 
the campaign of 1896 and election of, 
209-227 ; receptions and speeches 
by, at Canton, to offset Bryan's 
personal stumping tour, 215-216; 
handsome majority finally won for, 
227 ; offer of Cabinet position (Post- 



master-Generalship) to Mr. Hanna 
by, 229 ; history of appointment 
of Sherman as Secretary of State, 
to make room for Mr. Hanna in the 
Senate, 232-239; advice to Mr. 
Hanna before first stump-speaking 
tour, 245 ; administration embar- 
rassed by Cuban question, 273- 
274, 276-277, 278; credit due, for 
success of administration and united 
support of Republican party in 1900, 
296-297 ; change in relations be- 
tween Mr. Hanna and, in 1900, 
owing to the latter's increasing 
personal power and popularity, 
320-321 ; correspondence with Mr. 
Hanna concerning discharge of 
government employees during the 
campaign, 329-330 ; his biographer 
kept a good deal in mind by, 331, 
363-364 ; attempts to interfere in 
Mr. Hanna's conduct of the cam- 
paign by trying to prevent the 
latter's Northwestern tour, 332-334 ; 
effect on cause of, of Mr. Hanna's 
successful tour of Northwest, 340- 
341 ; overwhelming plurality re- 
ceived by, 341 ; second inauguration 
of, 355 ; assassination of, at Buffalo, 
358-360; depth and strength of 
Mr. Hanna's attachment to, 362- 
363 ; a colder man in disposition 
than Mr. Hanna, 363-364; an 
abler politician than Mr. Hanna, 
365 ; Mr. Hanna's remarks on, at 
unveiling of memorial statue at 
Toledo, 367. 

McKinley Bill, tariff policy embodied 
in, 150-151. 

McKinnie, W. J., 456, 459. 

McKisson, Robert E., in the conspir- 
acy against Mr. Hanna for Senator, 
251 ; reasons for hostility to Mr. 
Hanna, 252 ; nominated as anti- 
Hanna candidate for the Senate, 
255 ; defeat of, 259 ; fails of reelection 
as Mayor of Cleveland, 294. 

McLain, Mary Ann, 32-33. 

McLean, John R., unsuccessful candi- 
date for the Senate, 255 ; defeated 
in election for Governor by George 
K. Nash, 295-296. 

McMillan, Reuben, school teacher, 23. 

McMillan, Senator, 284. 

" Maggie," the Hannas' family cook, 
447. 459. 

Maine, blowing up of the, 277, 278. 

Manderson, General, 181. 



INDEX 



491 



Manhattan steamboat, 40. 
Manley, Joseph H., 178, 214. 
Mason, Assemblyman, 253. 
Massillon coal district strike, 89-90 

92-94. 
Mather, Samuel, 170, 456. 
Mechanics, M. A. Hanna's aptitude 

for, 98-99. 
Mellen, Lucius F., quoted, 98; on 

Mr. Hanna's charities, 461-462. 
Merriam, William R., 150, 180 192 
194, 196, 197, 198 ; instrumentahty 
of, in getting gold plank past the 
Committee on Resolutions, Conven- 
tion of 1896, 202. 
Milburn, John G., 359. 
Minneapolis, Republican National 

Convention of 1892 at, 165-166. 
Mitchell, John, 389, 391; mentioned 
in connection with anthracite strike 
of 1902, 393, 394, 395, 398, 399. 
Moore, Charles A., 392. 
Morgan, J. P., meeting of John 

Mitchell and, 393. 
Morgan, Senator, 382. 
Morrow, James B., 67, 235 263 

269. 
Morse, Jay C, 46. 
Morse, Mrs. Jay C, 6. 
Morton, Levi P., 179, 180, 189, 219. 
Mulhern, George G., 77, 86, 87, 88. 
Municipal corruption, Mr. Hanna and 

80-83. 
Myers, Allen O., 250-251. 
Myers, Daniel, 112. 



Nash, George K., 46, 254; made 
Chairman of State Committee, 243 ; 
elected Governor of Ohio, 294-296 ;' 
reelected Governor (1901), 356-358.' 
Nash, Samuel K., 176. 
National Civic Federation, 388 ff. ; 
Mr. Hanna publicly identifies him- 
self with, 391-392; failure of In- 
dustrial Department as an agency 
for settling labor troubles, 407 ; defi- 
nite program of gradual develop- 
ment projected for, in Mr. Hanna's 
mind, 444. 
National Convention, of 1884 120- 
124; of 1888, 133-136; of' 1892 
165-166; of 1896, 190-208; of 
1900. 302-318. 
National Magazine articles, on ship- 
subsidy question, 350 ; on " McKin- 
ley as I knew Him," 363; on "So- 
cialism and Labor Unions," 404 405 
406. 



Nebraska, tour of, by Mr. Hanna in 
1900, 336-340. 

New Lisbon, Ohio, 1-2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 
10, 19; ruined by mistaken trans- 
portation policy ; Mr. Hanna's visit 
to, in 1890, 33-35. 

Newspaper-owning experience of Mr. 
Hanna, 65-70. 

Nicaragua route for isthmian canal 
376 ff., 384-385. 

Northern Lights steamboat, 40. 

Odell, B. B., 329, 435. 

Office, skill in selections for, displayed 

by President McKinley and Mr 

Hanna, 297-298. 
Ohio, position of, in M. A. Hanna's 

young manhood, 1; stock from 

which early settlers sprang, 7 ; effects 

on, of introduction of canals and 

railroads, 29-31. 
Ohio Canal, the, 29. 
Ohio Patriot, The, 10. 
Opera House, Cleveland, ownership of, 

by Mr. Hanna, 72-75, 460. 
Orient Transportation Company, 59. 
Osborne, General, 196. 
Osier, Dr. William, attends Mr. Hanna, 

454. 
Otis, Charles A., 112. 
Otis, John C, 253, 254; story of 
attempted bribery of, in Mr. Hanna's 
first Senatorial campaign, 259-264. 

Panama Canal legislation, 373, 376 ff. ; 
importance of Mr. Hanna's work in 
behalf of Panama route, 376-378, 380, 
381-382 ; decisive speech delivered 
by Mr. Hanna (June 5 and 6, 1902) 
382-384. 
Pankhurst, J. F., 61, 98. 
Parsons, Richard C, 66. 
Patent ballot-box episode, 153. 
Patronage, Mr. Hanna's skill in dis- 
tribution of, 297-298. 
Patterson, Raymond, address to Mr. 

Hanna by, 370-371. 
Payne, Henry C, 180, 192, 196, 197, 
198, 429; work of, in campaign of 
1896, 214. 
Payne, Oliver H., urges nomination 

for 1904 on Mr. Hanna, 440-441. 
Pennsylvania R. R. Co., relations 
between Rhodes & Co. and M. A. 
Hanna & Co. and, 60-61. 
Penrose, Senator, 286. 
Perkins, Senator Harry B., 117, 287. 
Pettigrew, Senator Richard F., per- 



492 



INDEX 



sonal attack on and quarrel with 
Mr. Hanna in Senate, 288-290; 
Mr. Hanna's efforts to defeat for 
reelection, 332-333, 337-338; loses 
seat in election of 1900, 341. 

Phelps, Mary, 450, 451, 452. 

Philadelphia, National Convention at, 
in 1900, 302-318. 

Pickands, James, 170. 

Pioneer purposes and methods as 
embodied in Mr. Hanna, 107-108, 
465 ff. 

Plain-Dealer, the Cleveland, aggressive 
attitude of, toward Mr. Hanna, 68. 

Piatt, OrvUle, 277, 279, 284; on Mr. 
Hanna's Panama Canal speech, 384 ; 
letter by, on the talk of nominating 
Mr. Hanna for the Presidency in 
1904, 441 ; eulogy of Mr. Hanna by, 
in the Senate, 457 ; quoted on Mr. 
Hanna's wonderful loyalty, 463-464. 

Piatt, Thomas C, 178, 179, 180, 189, 
191, 265; "Autobiography" of, 
quoted on Mr. Hanna, 180 ; asserts 
that gold plank in St. Louis platform 
was inserted by him, 192; "Auto- 
biography" of, quoted concerning 
the gold plank, 203 ; the nomination 
of Theodore Roosevelt for Vice- 
President in 1900, 309, 311-314; 
claim of, that he persuaded Mr. 
Hanna to acquiesce in nomination 
of Roosevelt for Vice-President, 
316. 

Politics, interest of all citizens in, before 
and immediately after the Civil 
War, 111; Mr. Hanna's interest in, 
shown to antedate his street railway 
connection, 112-113; patriotic mo- 
tives for the pioneer type of man's 
interest in, 113-114; essential 
points of M. A. Hanna's creed re- 
garding, 115, 465 ff. ; Mr. Hanna's 
standard of behavior in, not as high 
as in business, 188-189 ; total lack of 
parallel to part played by Mr. 
Hanna in, 189. 

Polydelphian Society of New Lisbon, 
23-24. 

Pope, A. A., 170. 

Populism, speeches of Mr. Hanna's 
dealing with, 334-340; death of, 
in decisive victory of McKinley and 
Roosevelt in 1900, 341. 

Potter, Bishop, on choice of Mr. 
Hanna for chairman of Industrial 
Department, Civic Federation, 392. 

Proctor, Senator Redfield, at St. Louis 



Convention, 196, 197, 198; men- 
tioned, 284. 

Protection, Republican principle of, 
and McKinley's advocacy of, 142 ff. ; 
superseded by the currency issue 
in the campaign of 1896, 192 ff. 

Puerto Rico question, 281, 282. 

Quaker strain in Mr. Hanna's ances- 
try, 2, 7, 12, 18. 

Quay, Matthew S., plots against 
McKinley's candidacy in 1896, 178, 
179 ; shares in work of campaign, 
214 ; distinction between Mr. Hanna 
and politicians of type of, 265 ; 
disputed Senatorial seat of, 277, 
283 ; Constitutional question in- 
volved in title of, to seat decided 
in the negative, 283-284; Mr. 
Hanna incurs hostility of, by 
voting against, 284-285 ; discontent 
with McKinley regime shown by, 
at Convention of 1900, 302; at- 
tempts to embarrass the admin- 
istration by indorsing Roosevelt 
for Vice-President (1900), 314; 
favors Roosevelt's candidacy at 
time of projected Hanna boom 
(1903), 435. 

Railroad alliances of M. A. Hanna's 
firm, 59-61, 62. 

Rathbone, E. G., connection of, with 
bribery charge against Mr. Hanna, 
260, 262, 263, 289 n. 

Reed, T. B., letter from, to McKinley 
on latter's election as Governor, 
161-162; candidacy of, for nomina- 
tion for President in 1896, 177-178, 
179, 180, 182, 190-191. 

Rhodes, C. Augusta (Mrs. M. A. 
Hanna), 47. 

Rhodes, Daniel P., 47-53, 56. 

Rhodes, James Ford, a member of 
Rhodes & Co., 60 n. ; mentioned, 
92. 

Rhodes, Robert R., member of Rhodes 
& Co., 50, 60 n. ; quoted, 52, 54, 97. 

Rhodes & Co., firm of, established, 50 ; 
energies of M. A. Hanna in building 
up, 53-54 ; business conditions 
favorable to, 54-56 ; description of 
business of, 56-64 ; becomes M. A. 
Hanna & Co., 60 n. 

Richards, J. K., 177, 195. 

Rittman, Frederick, 459. 

Rockefeller, John D., 36, 41, 43, 66, 
268. 



INDEX 



493 



Rockefeller, William, 36. 

Rocky River R. R., 76. 

Roosevelt, Alice, 429. 

Roosevelt, Theodore, elected Governor 
of New York, 294 ; first proposal 
of, for Vice-Presidential candidate in 
1900, 309; urged by Thomas C. 
Piatt but objected to by McKinley 
and Hanna, 309-310; quoted on 
effort of New York delegation 
headed by Piatt to force nomination 
on him, 311-314; forces outside of 
New York which compelled him to 
accept nomination, 314-317; unani- 
mous vote for, on first ballot, 317; 
strength given to the Republican 
ticket by, 317-318; speaking tours 
of, in campaign of 1900, 327-328; 
on the death of President McKinley 
agrees to continue the latter's 
policies, 360 ; Mr. Hanna's promise 
to make his administration a success, 
361 ; avails himself of Mr. Hanna's 
help, 371-372; quoted on phases of 
the anthracite coal strike of 1902, 
397-400 ; aspirations of, for nomina- 
tion in 1904, 414-415; continuation 
of cordial relations with Mr. Hanna 
in 1902, 415-416 ; interests opposed 
to nomination of, in 1904, 420-421 ; 
lack of popularity in the South, 421 ; 
Mr. Hanna's ugly dilemma over 
matter of indorsing, 423-426 ; 
attends wedding of Ruth Hanna, 
429 ; efforts to nominate Mr. Hanna 
against, 435 ; Mr. Hanna's motives 
in not coming out openly for (1903), 
442-444 ; last exchange of notes 
between Mr. Hanna and, before 
latter's death, 453-454. 

Roy, Andrew, "History of Coal Mines 
of United States" by, 91. 

Rutan, D. L., 254. 

St. Louis, Republican National Con- 
vention of 1896 held at, 190-205. 

Sanders, Judge W. B., quoted, 106- 
107 ; mentioned, 456. 

Sandy and Beaver Canal, the, 29-31. 

Saunders, A. C, 60 n., 112; quoted, 
97, 102-103. 

Schlesinger, Ferdinand, 100-101. 

Schools and school-teachers at New 
Lisbon, 19-23. 

Scott, N. B., 214; correspondence 
between Mr. Hanna and, 439-440. 

Scott, Wniiam A., 254. 

Senate, national, beginnings of Mr. 



Hanna's career in, 272 ff. ; feeling 
in, at time of his death, 456-467. 

Shayne, C. C, 262. 

Shelling, George, 389. 

Sherman, John, candidacy for nomina- 
tion for President, 122-124; Mr. 
Hanna's support of, for Presidential 
nomination, 129-137 ; acquaintance 
between Mr. Hanna and, 131 ; 
Foraker's lukewarmness toward, at 
Convention of 1888, 132-136; de- 
feat of, by Benjamin Harrison, 134— 
135 ; replacing of, in Mr. Hanna's 
mind by McKinley as a Presidential 
possibility, 140-141 ; indorses Mr. 
Hanna's recommendations for ap- 
pointments which were later turned 
down by President Harrison, 153- 
154 ; characterization of, by Butter- 
worth, as a fast and loose player, 
155 ; desperate Senatorial fight 
successfully carried through by Mr. 
Hanna (1891), 158-162; letter of 
gratitude by, to Mr. Hanna but 
neglect to mention name of latter 
in his "Reminiscences," 162-163; 
appointed Secretary of State by Mc- 
Kinley and seat as Senator given 
to Mr. Hanna by appointment of 
Governor Bushnell, 233 ff. ; attitude 
of, toward the President and Mr. 
Hanna when made Secretary of 
State, 233-236; appointment of, 
proves a mistake, 237-239. 

Ship-building at Cleveland, 56. 

Ship-subsidy legislation virged by Mr. 
Hanna, 280, 344-364. 

Sims, Charles, 66. 

Sims, Elias, 76, 79. 

Siney, John, 91. 

Slavery, opposition of Mr. Hanna's 
ancestors to, 12. 

Smith, Charles Emory, 333 ; article on 
Roosevelt and Hanna by, quoted, 416. 

Smith, Joseph P.T 176, 177. 

Smithnight, Captain, 128-129. 

South, skilful political work of Mr. 
Hanna in the, in interests of Mc- 
Kinley, 175-176, 180 ; popularity of 
Mr. Hanna in, as compared with 
President Roosevelt, 421. 

South Dakota, Mr. Hanna's speech- 
making tour of, 334-340 ; defeat of 
Pettigrew in, 341. 

Spanish War, the, 274, 276-277; the 
President and Mr. Hanna's attitude 
on, 278-279; effect of, on the ad- 
ministration's fortunes, 279. 



494 



INDEX 



Spear, J. C, 181. 

SpoUs system as administered by 
McKinley and Hanna, 299-301. 

Spooner, Senator, 284, 287, 353; 
private testimonial to Mr. Hanna 
from (1903), 432; on effect of Mr. 
Hanna's death on the Senate, 456. 

Spooner amendment to the Hepburn 
BUI, 382-385. 

Squire, Andrew, 97, 98, 102, 104, 112, 
254, 456. 

Standard Oil Company, Mr. Hanna 
and the, 51-52 ; contribution of, 
to McKinley's campaign expenses 
(1896), 220; letter from Mr. Hanna 
to David K. Watson concerning, 
and results, 266-271 ; contribution 
to Republican campaign fund in 
1900, 325. 

"Stand-pattism," enunciation of policy 
of, by Mr. Hanna, 417-419 ; change 
in significance of, 419, 476. 

Steamboats, effect of transportation 
by, on development of country, 29 ; 
line of, established by Hanna, 
Garretson & Co., 40 ; fleet owned by 
members of Rhodes & Co., 59 ; 
the first steel vessels on the Great 
Lakes, 61. 

Stone, Amasa, 66. 

Stone, Melville E., 196. 

Straus, Oscar, 392. 

Street railways, history of Mr. Hanna's 
business connection with, 76-83 ; 
employees of, and Mr. Hanna, 86- 
89 ; political capital for Tom John- 
son furnished by Mr. Hanna's 
holdings in, 355, 419, 420. 

Strikes, early experiences of Mr. Hanna 
with, 88-95 ; in plants of United 
States Steel Corporation (1901), 391 ; 
of anthracite coal miners in 1900 and 
in 1902, 389, 393-400. 

Stump speaking, Mr. Hanna's start in, 
243-247; tour of Northwest in 
campaign of 1900, 331-340. 

Sun, New York, story concerning 
Roosevelt and Hanna, 441-442. 

Surplus, question of reduction of the, 
in campaign of 1888, 143 ff. 

Taft, Charles, helps in financial rescue 

of McKinley, 170. 
Taft, President, administration of, 

weakened by mistakes in selections 

for office, 297. 
Tarbell, Ida, "History of Standard Oil 

Company" by, 267. 



Tariff, the main issue in campaign of 
1888, 143 ff.; the McKinley Bill, 
150-151 ; bungling of Democrats 
in revising (Wilson Bill), 171-172; 
the Dingley Law, 249, 276, 276. 

Temperance movement, champion- 
ship of, by Hanna family, 12-13. 

Thomas, E. B., 45. 

Thomas, President, and anthracite 
coal strikers, 390, 393. 

Thomasville, Ga., lease of house at 
and visits of Mr. Hanna to, 175- 
176, 281. 

Thurman, Allen G., 133. 

Thurston, John M., 190. 

Tillman, Senator, 286. 

Todd, David, 14. 

Transportation, problem of, in early 
19th century, 9, 28 ; solution of, by 
steamboats and artificial waterways, 
28-29 ; the coming of railroads, 31 ; 
revolutionizing of, on Great Lakes, 
by introduction of steel vessels, 
61. 

Trusts, identification of growth of, with 
Republican supremacy, 296 ; as a 
campaign issue in 1900 welcomed by 
Mr. Hanna, 305-306, 323-324. 

TuUy, Murray F., 402. 

Underground railroad, 12. 

Union National Bank, Cleveland, 

organization of, 70-72. 
Union Pacific R. R., services of Mr. 

Hanna as director of, 131. 
United States Steel Corporation strike 

(1901), 391. 

Vermont, origin of Mr. Hanna's 

maternal ancestry in, 5-6. 
Voight, Ohio State Senator, 253, 254, 

258. 

Wade, J. H., 66, 170. 

Wade, Senator Benjamin, 14. 

Walker Canal Commission, 377. 

Wall Street and the election of Mc- 
Kinley in 1896, 219-220. 

Warmington, George H., member of 
Rhodes & Co., 50, 60 n., 93. 

Watson, David K., story of letter from 
Mr. Hanna to, 266-271. 

Waymire, James A., 181. 

Wellington, Senator, 180. 

Western Reserve College, experiences 
of young Hanna at, 36-39. 

West Side Street Ry. Co., Mr. Hanna's 
connection with, 76-83. 



INDEX 



495 



Whiat-player, Mr. Hanna as a, 459- 
460. 

White, William Allen, quoted, 71. 

Williams, E. P., 459. 

Wilson Bill, the, 171-172. 

Wolcott, Edward O., 46. 

Woodland Avenue and West Side 
Street Ry. Co., 77. 

Woodruff, Timothy, candidate for 
Vice-Presidential nomination in 
1900, 309, 314; reported conversa- 
tion between Mr. Hanna and, 310. 



Yates, " Jack," 459. 

Ydrad Boat Club, 41. 

Yellow journalism, attacks of, on Mr. 
Hanna, 223-225. 

Young, Lafayette, speech made by, 
nominating Mr. Roosevelt for Vice- 
President, 317. 

Zanesville, State Convention at (1895), 

176-177. 
Zerbe, J. B., Cleveland associate 

and friend of Mr. Hanna's, 456, 459. 



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found the carefully considered views of a free and untrammeled thinker on the 
momentous religious controversies and movements of his period, chronologically 
arranged under the following headings : 

Vol. I. Church and State, 1 829-1 894. — Ecclesiastical Patronage and Univer- 
sity Reform, 1869-1885. — The Oxford Movement, 1840-1894. — The Scottish 
Episcopal Church, 1 858-1 862. 

Vol. II. Oxford Elections, 1847-1865. — The Controversy with Rome, 1850- 
1896. — The Controversy with Unbelief, 1864-1896. — Education, 1843-1894. — 
Letters of Mr. Gladstone to his Children, 1847-1893. — Personal, 1826-1896. 



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Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York 



Rambling Recollections 



By the Rt. Hon. Sir HENRY DRUMMOND WOLFF, 
G.C.B., G.C.M.G. 

Two volumes, cloth, 8vo, $7.50 net 

"The most valuable parts of the book are those chapters devoted to the British 
administration of the Ionian Islands; the account of Wolff's interviews with a 
number of the prominent European statesmen just prior to the Congress of 
Berlin of 1878; the description of the organization of East Rumelia, pursuant 
to the treaty formulated by that Congress, and the story of the instigation of the 
treaty with Turkey, upon which is based the legality of England's present anom- 
alous position in Egypt. Of great interest also are the personal impressions of 
the Franco- Prussian War, and the detailed account of Lytton's strange interest 
in occult phenomena, to which he gave expression in ' Zanoni,' and in some of 
his other novels." — New York Times. 

"Sir Henry Drummond Wolff's volume is interesting in another way. It is 
crammed full of anecdotes of all kinds of people in all kinds of circles — relig- 
ious, diplomatic, parliamentary, social, literary. The work corroborates the 
statements often made that Sir Henry is a raconteur par excellence, while it 
also proves him to be a first-class diplomatist, with a fine memory and a keen 
eye and ear. He has many stories of his work and experiences in Madrid, 
Roumania, Egypt, France, and America, as well as of his House of Commons 
period. Here is a tale about the future Lord Beaconsfield : Mr. Disraeli used 
generally to walk home from the House of Commons, usually in the society of 
Lord Henry Lennox. One night, rather late, I was in the neighborhood of 
Whitehall as the house was breaking up, and I met Mr, Disraeli alone. He 
asked me to accompany him, and we canvassed the prospects of the govern- 
ment. I said to him, as there was some talk of the government resigning, ' I 
suppose you will be prime minister.' He answered ' In the extraordinary course 
of things.' " — Chicago Record-Herald. 

Life of Lord Randolph Churchill 

By W. S. CHURCHILL 

Two volumes, cloth, i2nw, illustrated, $g.oo net 

" These two volumes form the stormy record of a stormy life. That they should 
be more or less partisan was to be expected, that they should be more or less 
colored by personal prejudice was also certain, yet they are on the whole a fairer 
and more comprehensive consideration of the man and his work than could have 
been written by any one else. They form a permanent addition to political 
history, and they prove that Mr. Winston Churchill is a worthy member of his 
distinguished family." — Bos/on Evening Transcript. 

" Disraeli had great faith in the possibilities of Lord Randolph as a young man. 
He gave the Fourth Tarty movement his approval at the outset. Perhaps he 
sympathized with any other man who undertook again what he had so triumph- 
antly accomplished, the remaking of the Tory party by bringing it in touch with 
democracy. . . . His weakness as a statesman was an inability to act along 
with others. He offended Queen Victoria, he alienated Lord Salisbury, and he 
quarreled with his intimate political associates. But he saw clearly, and he pre- 
dicted the fast-approaching time when labor laws will be made by labor interest 
for the advantage of labor. These volumes are the record of the most splendid 
failure in the political history of England." — Philadelphia Press. 



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Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York 



The Life of Benjamin Disraeli 
Earl of Beaconsfield 

By WILLIAM FLAVELLE MONYPENNY 
Vol. I, 1804-1837 

Illustrated, cloth, 8vo, 401 pages, $3.00 net ; by mail, $3.18 



" Benjamin Disraeli was doubtless one of the most picturesque, brilliant, and 
astute politicians that England ever produced. There are few of the older men 
of this generation, familiar with the political events of the Victoria period of 
British history, who have not formed firm convictions of this man's character 
and influence. He was in all probability the most aggressive statesman, and the 
most highly praised and severely criticised man that ever rose to tame and in- 
fluence in the British Parliament. Although dead for a generation, men have 
not ceased to wonder at the enormous success he was able to achieve against 
odds which, to ordinary mortals, would have seemed impossible barriers." — 
Boston Herald. 



" It is on the whole a very human, though egotistical Disraeli that the biog- 
rapher gives us, brilliant, witty, ambitious, but by no means the unscrupulous 
adventurer that the late Goldwin Smith and other enemies have depicted. His 
best defence is his own personal letters, which the author has wisely allowed to 
constitute the bulk of the book." — Chicago Record-Herald. 

" Disraeli had extraordinary powers, infinite ambition, audacious genius and 
industry, and in tracing thirty-three years of this extraordinary career Mr. Mony- 
penny has made a book vitally interesting in its revelation of character." — Z>es 
Moines Capital. 

" The volume leaves Disraeli just as he entered upon his parliamentary career, 
and if the material for the succeeding volumes is handled as frankly as that used 
in the present, the biography should be one of the most interesting of recent 
years. Disraeli had a far more picturesque personality than Gladstone, and the 
biographies of the two great rivals furnish interesting comparisons." — World 
To-Day. 



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Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York 



Documents on the State-wide 
Initiative, Referendum, and Recall 

By CHARLES A. BEARD 

Associate Professor of Politics in Columbia University 
AND 

BIRL E. SHULTZ 

Inaiana Scholar in Political Science in Columbia University 

Cloth, i2mo, 394 PP-, $2.00 net 

This volume includes all of the constitutional amendments pro- 
viding for a state-wide system of initiative and referendum now in 
force, several of the most significant statutes elaborating the constitu- 
tional provisions, all of the constitutional amendments now pending 
adoption, six important judicial decisions, and certain materials relative 
to the state-wide recall. While no attempt has been made to go into 
the subject of the initiative, referendum, and recall as applied to local 
and municipal government, some illustrative papers showing the 
system in ordinary municipalities and commission-governed cities have 
been included. 

In the introductory note Professor Beard presents a keen analysis 
and scholarly discussion of the documents contained in this volume. 
His conclusions will be found intensely stimulating and suggestive to 
every student of political science who is interested in the present-day 
movement toward popular reform. 

Furthermore, the book will be found the most convenient source 
upon which to base a course on this subject. It will also be a valu- 
able supplementary text for use in courses on State Legislation, Party 
Government, etc. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

Publishers 64-66 Fiftli Avenue New York 



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